Using Internal 300GB HDD As An External HDD?
Mar 23, 2008
Basically, I have a custom built pc back in the UK which I will be taking apart soon, as Im selling up everything I have back in the UK. (Moved to Finland last year from UK). I want to keep my internal 300GB HDD from my custom built PC, and know I can do this, and also know what case I'm going for too, although it will be powered independently, with its own psu rather than USB powered. Now my question is to you kind people, is, what exactly do I have to do before I can dismantle my custom built PC, and start using the 300GB HDD as an external HDD with my laptop.?
Im sure its not as simple as it sounds.? Just unplug, and fit to external case/housing(which comes with leads etc), and then use with laptop.? Do I need to install anything on this drive so that everything stored on it can be accessible? Also, not sure whats installed on there all together right now, although theres loads of photos, and files I need for work etc. My concerns are that some, if not all of the files used from the OS from my custom built pc are in there, which I do not need.
I will of course power up the pc to double check all files etc prior to dismantling, I just need some advice on what is the right way in going about this? The last thing I want to do is remove the 300GB HDD, then then bring it to Finland, and not being able to access anything due to some problems which could of been prevented back in the UK. The OS on my PC is XP Professional. The OS on my laptop is Vista Business.
View 4 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
May 30, 2009
Is there any speed difference or anything that i can get with a external (PCI) ethernet card then a internal ethernet? Im asking about this because im thinking of getting a Killer Nic M1 but not entirely sure if i should get it or not.
View 5 Replies
View Related
May 7, 2008
I am curious if Vista can be run from one of those portable external hard drives that I see in Staples, etc... rather than have to install another internal hard drive. I want to dual-boot with XP (already installed on an internal HD) and it would also be great if I can bring that external HD with us when we travel and hook it up to my wife's XP laptop and be able to boot up in Vista too. We need something for testing our software in Vista.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jul 22, 2008
I am running Vista Ultimate on my laptop which has a 50gb internal harddrive. I have less than 500 mb of memory left and was wondering could I move the entire content of my C: drive ( including the vista ultimate ) to an external harddrive, then format my C: drive and boot up from my external harddrive? Also if this is possible could I dual boot with Mac OS X Leapord? If this is possible can you please tell me how.
View 8 Replies
View Related
Sep 6, 2009
I have 2 pcs one with xp pro, other is vista business 32bit on laptop. Using a 750gb samsung hd753Lj internal hard drive in a sumvision external enclosure with usb2 and e-sata connection, but i only have usb connection. ALl works fine on xp computer, but when i plug into vista i get the error in the system tray saying "usb device not recognised". In device manager it says "unknown device." have tried all 4 usb ports on laptop, have tried using it via mains powered usb hub and still no joy.
View 4 Replies
View Related
May 7, 2008
I am curious if Vista can be run from one of those portable external hard drives that I see in Staples, etc. rather than have to install another internal hard drive. I want to dual-boot with XP (already installed on an internal HD) and it would also be great if I can bring that external HD with us when we travel and hook it up to my wife's XP laptop and be able to boot up in Vista too. We need something for testing our software in Vista.
View 7 Replies
View Related
Apr 10, 2008
I have a friend who has an HP laptop, Windows Vista (obviously lol) and, at first his internal mic would pic up sound-music, background noise, &c., but not voice. On Skype it said that it was muted. There were no "mute/un-mute" buttons to be found, anywhere. And it wasn't just on Skype either. Yahoo too. It just wouldn't register it at all. He was trying to mess with the mic settings/ recording device settings and I guess he clicked on disable. He was going to try and enable it again but, it deleted the entire device!!! So now he can't mess with it or see it or anything. It says "No Audio Devices Are Installed."
View 4 Replies
View Related
Apr 4, 2009
How can I do a clean format on my internal laptop hdd cos the hdd is corrupted.
I tried to reinstall XP but the system scan error.
So I am thinking of doing a clean reformat on the hdd, then boot up my XP installation cd to do a clean installation.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Mar 23, 2008
Last night it was fine, turned it off and went to bed, got up thismorning and turned it on, windows can't find any networks. I click "diagnose why..." and it says that my laptop doesn't have a wireless NIC or the drivers are out of date! but nothing changed, and it's not the router it's working fine.
Hp dv 9000 17" btw there have been a few other issues for about a month, quick play
doesn't work and WMP won't play audio tracks (dvds still work, oddly enough) when that started happening I got messages at start up, they are:
Hp quickplay was stopped working cvlcap module (or somthing close to that, I forgot the first part, I know it ends in cap but it might be cvcl or something) has stopped
working and occasionally it would say the disk defraggmentor was stopped working even when I'm just browsing the internet and it's not even open.
those aren't that big a deal, but I really need my NIC working again, I'm running an Avast! virus scan right now but I don't think that it the problem.
on a side note, what do ye nerds think of Avast!? being free seems to good to be true, but I've seen store baught antivirus that is obvisously much worse (defender pro comes to mind.)
View 9 Replies
View Related
Feb 22, 2009
I lost sound to my pc a while back. Finally had time to sort it out. It was showing realteck speakers not plugged in - they are within the pc, so I tried unplugging things and rebooting to no effect. I then tried disabling and restarting, only problem is I can't work out how to enable them. The files are there, but when I go into control panel sound and manage audio devices it says there aren't any.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jun 29, 2008
On Windows XP I used WinRAR for my backups because the OS lacked a decent backup system. To my surprise with Vista I still use WinRAR for my backups as that OS doesn't seem to have a decent backup system either.
I want to backup files from internal drive C to a physically separate internal drive D. Drive D won't show up. What comes closest seems to be ''The location is either the system disk (the disk that Windows is installed on?also called the C drive) or the boot disk (the disk that Windows uses to start your computer?also called the startup disk)as Windows XP is installed on drive D.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jul 4, 2008
The manufacturer of my PC provided me with a New Imaged Hard drive. My old drive was working fine except it had some pre-installed software on it that could not be removed and could cause conflicts. The manufactiurer wants the old Hard drive returned. The old drive has some senitive personal information on it so I am reluctant just to pack it up and return it.
I have done some research about how to wipe off all information on a Hard drive before donating a PC, etc......but all I have read is very complicated and I am not comfortable in proceedding following any of the processes. Keeping in mind, I am not erasing the Hard drive with my PC's OS on it, (although the Old drive still has an OS on it). I can connect the OLD drive as a 2nd Internal drive....and than proceed to Wipe it Clean before returning it.
Surely there must be an easy, simple process for someone with limited computer knowledge to wipe a 2nd Internal Hard drive clean of all data so that no one could access any information off that drive....
View 6 Replies
View Related
Mar 16, 2009
hey guys, this may seem like a stupid question but I am travelling and I cant really afford an external hard drive. I need to back up my laptop and reinstall windows... Is it possible to put evrything from C: onto D:, format C: and reinstall without losing anything off D:? I have a Toshiba Sattelite 600 with two 300GB hard disks, running vista home premium 32bit...
View 6 Replies
View Related
Feb 6, 2009
I've added and extra hard drive because I'm always low on disk space but I can't get the PC to recognise the new drive. SATA 2 and 3 are greyed out and I don't know how to change it.
View 7 Replies
View Related
Dec 2, 2008
I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ11S, and every time i remove my headphones all sound stops working unless i restart the programme, for instance i can be listening to something off itunes, unplug my headphones and the music pauses and won't play again unless i close and reopen it. This also happens with firefox, and i presume other applications, though i have yet to try this. This is a recent development, everything worked fine until a few days ago when i deleted some old programmes i dont use, games and suchlike. I'm pretty much certain i didn't delete anything vital, though i guess its a possibility.
View 6 Replies
View Related
Apr 22, 2009
I have 64 bit Vista Home Premium, can I connect to a domain. I see I can connect to a Workgroup, but I don't see a way to connect to my internal domain
View 4 Replies
View Related
May 4, 2009
I have a Vista Ultimate 64 bit system using an ASUS striker II formula MB, Intel core 2 quad 2.66 mh CPU, 8 GB RAM. It was setup with 2 320 GB Seagate drives and a 500 GB Seagate drive in a RAID. A week and a half ago when shutting down the system, I got the install updates message. I clicked OK. Upon return, I found the system still running showing the BIOS screen. After reboot, I had a no operating system error. Using the Vista DVD to attempt repair, yielded a corrupt partition error. I attempted to reinstall Vista on one 320 GB drive. This gave a disk boot failure. After trying this and that, I ran chkdsk during boot which fixed the error. I want to recover my data. To facilitate recovery, I purchased 2 1.5 GB Seagate drives. I have attempted to format the drives using computer management and safe mode with command prompt. The drives will get to 73% format but no farther.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Jun 25, 2009
I have a Dell Inspiron 530 running Vista Home Premium x64 SP2.It has an internal card reader,a TEAC CA-200,that connects internally to the front USB connector on the motherboard.When the reader works,it shows up at four drive letters in Windows Explorer. The problem is that it doesn't work.When I first boot the PC the drives show up. After plugging in and ejecting a memory card a few times,all the drive letters go away and when I try plugging in a memory card it occasionally gives me a USB Error message that talks about a missing driver.It lists six USB ports with one listed as unknown - driver missing.If I open the case and unplug and re-plug the reader cable, the drives are all found again.Then in short order they'll disappear again.I've worked with Dell tech support and they've replaced the reader and its cable with no improvement.I've updated the chipset drivers with no improvement.Dell's last suggestion was to reinstall Windows from scratch. Doing a Google search for "dell card reader not recognized"finds a LOT of reports of this problem and I've already tried the suggested fixes. Unless you have the solution,I can see only two options going forward.Pretend the reader isn't there and get an external card reader,or get an internal card reader that uses a standard USB cable to plug into an available port on an added USB card.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Apr 13, 2009
I just installed a new internal hard drive (SATA). I want to use this drive only for storage (not boot-up).
When I try to access it via "My Computer" the drive is not shown. When I try to find it in "Device Manager" it is not shown. When I try to set it up in the BIOS, that field is "read only"... I cannot highlight it to change it. I have made sure all cables are secure. I even swapped the power source of my existing hard drive with the new hard drive to ensure power is OK. How do I set up this hard drive? My PC is a Dell Inspiron 531S, running Windows Vista Home Edition 32bit.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jul 19, 2009
I’m trying to shadow copy Volumes C and E to the separate internal HDD Volume D. I understand VSS requires Dynamic Disks. Diskmgmt.msc (command prompt/administrator) shows all drives as basic type. Right clicking on any of them does not offer ‘Conversion to Dynamic Disk’, and Properties don’t show a Shadow Copies tab.
1. How do I convert from Basic to Dynamic disks on my mobile computer?
2. Do both source and target drives have to be Basic type?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Mar 27, 2009
I bought a set of speakers for my laptop and in the process of trying to get them to work I seem to have somehow disabled my internal speaker. Now my computer keeps telling me that I have no audio output device installed. I'm not sure how to get things working again - either the newly purchased external speakers or the internal one which has worked just fine up until now.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Dec 2, 2009
Ive just formatted my hard drive and got a new graphics card -ATI 4870. When I try to run a game, using 'steam' it tries to install directx before failing, so I found the download myself and tried, it failed. The error said: 'INTERNAL SYSTEM ERROR OCCURRED refer to DxError.log and DirectX.log in your windows folder to determine problem.' So what any ideas, I need directx but I cant have directx. Wasnt sure if this post should go in here, gaming or graphics card. I figured here as its more a software issue.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Mar 27, 2008
I am trying to find an external hard disk drive that is fully compatible
with Vista x64.
I purchased a Western Digital My Book Premium II drive and it doesn't work
properly even though their web site states that is Vista compatible. I
contacted them and they fairly ridiculed me for assuming that that meant it
would be compatible with 64-bit Vista. I can still use the drive to
actually copy files to but there is no 64-bit driver so the bundled software
doesn't work and Vista keeps telling me that it needs to install a driver
for this device.
I contacted Seagate about their FreeAgent Pro product and they claim it
should work even though there is also no 64-bit driver for it. I don't
trust that statement after my experience with the WD drive.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Apr 27, 2009
im running vista home premium and Ive been trying to transfer all my old files and pics from a external hardrive which is hitachi ide that was out of my old laptop running xp
when i plug it in through the usb and look at my computer its not recognizing it but when i look in storage in computer management at the botton it says unknown disc not initialized so i am unable to browse the hardrive.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Apr 5, 2008
Since I installed SP1 for Vista HP 64x I can no longer access my external hard drive/media player.
When I connect it via USB I get a message saying I need USB to IDE drivers. Windows then offers to search the internet etc but cannot find any. As a result Vista cannot see the drive and I am prevented from accessing nearly 300GB of my photos, music and movies.
This is a personal disaster. My best photographic work is on that drive.
I have had the drive for about a year and it worked perfectly before SP1. It's sold by a firm called Envizage but I believe they are just importers.
I contacted them and they replied that no drivers are required for Vista.
I was not even aware there was an IDE drive in there but I believe it is a 400GB Samsung. Can't check now obviously.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Oct 4, 2008
I am getting a 1TB external harddrive and was wondering weather I could basically copy the whole of my C: drive including the OS to it. I also want to boot straight from the external drive. I also do not really care if it is'nt recommended lol. If this is possible would it also be possible to dual-boot with XP? I have both install disks for Vista and XP and I am willing to buy software.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Mar 2, 2009
I recently solved the problem where my External HDD came up as a CD Drive but now it says the permission is read only,
View 7 Replies
View Related
Nov 8, 2009
I have bought a WD external hard drive, and backed up the contents of my family's computers onto it. I was intending to update the back up on a regular basis- will the files get automatically overwritten? I'm assuming so as I can't see how you would remember which files were new.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Aug 6, 2009
I have used the same external harddrive for over a year but suddenly my computer cant se what on it. It has the letter "N" but shows as raw. Its strange becours it works fine on XP pro and it did work fine on this comp before. Anyone have a clue?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Jun 10, 2008
I have some troubles with my new USB 2 "high speed" hub that is, once installed I was getting some errors about removing connected devices 'cause I could get better performance on a USB 2 port....huh? How could it be? It is a USB 2 hub! So I've noticed that I was getting some errors (in the system tray) like: "Device driver was not succesfully installed" and in the list: "USB 2.0 Hub" "Searching preconfigure d driver folders" So I've read on the package (unknown chines brand) that the hub is compatible with all but Vista!
View 4 Replies
View Related
Dec 29, 2007
I have an external Maxtor dvd/cd rom and each time I try to copy a file to a dvd/or cd it tells me that the disc is corrupt, and/or empty/or that it doesn't like any brand I try to insert.I have installed the Vista Home Basic version.Do I need a special driver for that or can one of the correction programs fix it?
View 4 Replies
View Related
