Can I Convert and Internal Hard Drive to an External Hard Drive? Please Help

[arnott10]

I am having a problem with my girlfriends computer... It's about 7 years old & is running EXTREMELY slow. Slower than slow! My plan is to take out the Hard Drive and Put it into an External Enclosure and then transfer all the pictures and info that she wants onto my Laptop. I was wondering if this is possible to do and keep all of the data on the drive. Also how would I then get rid of the installed OS and just use the drive as mass storage for myself so I can store media on it.

Can anyone help me with this Please?

P.S. after this is done I may rebuild the computer if i can figure out why it's so slow... maybe it's the Hard Drive and this whole process won't work lol!

[rjfvillarosa]

What antivirus and malware scanners are running on this slow computer?
Is it a branded machine or a custom build?
What operating system is on it?

[arnott10]

Not sure what antivirus she has (it's been slow for the past 4 years that we've been together) she probably has no malware scanners.

It would have been bought from a big box store like best buy.

the OS i think is XP could possibly be Vista but i'm pretty sure XP

[rjfvillarosa]

To me you would be better off just buying an external harddrive. They are relatively cheap these days, plus the difference between the price of an external harddrive and just an enclosure is quite negligible.
Connect the external hardrive to her machine and copy and paste all the documents you want to keep, then connect the external harddrive to your laptop and scan the external for viruses and malware before accessing the drive to view the documents.
Before you wipe her harddrive and reinstall Windows, check what make and model her machine is and does she have installation disks or is there a recovery partition on the harddrive.

[arnott10]

the problem with transfering all the files from the computer to the external is that it is so slow... if i click something it takes 5 minutes to open it up and then another 5 to finish loading... so transferring the files would be like a 15 hour job lol!... i was hoping that taking the hard drive out and hooking it up to mine would make it go faster.

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by arnott10 i was hoping that taking the hard drive out and hooking it up to mine would make it go faster.

I had a feeling you were going to say that..
With her machine being so old it might only be a small harddrive, that's why buying the complete item would give you a good sized drive to be going on with. Also her harddrive is likely to be IDE and a new enclosure is going to be SATA.
Something like this will help you connect an IDE drive to your laptop:
USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter, Unitek, Y-1030TB

[arnott10]

so you think i should not even worry about an enclosure and buy that cable and just hook the Hard Drive to my computer... is it very risky to not have it in a case or any type of protection?

[glc]

Here is what you need, and it's available in Canada.

Newegg.ca - Rosewill RCW-608 USB2.0 Adapter For IDE/SATA Device (Include Protection case)

[SARGE]

For curiosity's sake download, install and run the below. A lot of us use it regularly. It's short for "crap cleaner". If her pc is slow it may take a few minutes but is short. Is safe and great, and free. Will be interesting to see if and how much it helps.
Download CCleaner 3.18.1707 - FileHippo.com

[rjfvillarosa]

Thats a good question. I am not sure I would use one as a long term solution. I am a profesional system builder and repair technician and I use those adapters almost everyday.
What you need to do is either find an enclosure that will support both IDE and SATA and buy a SATA drive to go with it, then return the harddrive to the slow machine, or just buy a complete enclosure and go the slow route.

I cannot comment on this enclosure as I have never even heard of it. I am linking it for information only.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817366005
Check how the harddrive is fitted to her machine because you will want to operate it in the same orientation. Putting a drive that has been fitted horizontally on to one end or on it's side can knock out the bearings very quickly.

[Nuclear Krusader]

If the hard drive is near full, that will definitely make it slow. Run the program Sarge linked to, as it will clean up all the temp files.

[wade7575]

Also try doing a Cookie Scan with Superantispyware it's a free program and works not to bad,you may to want to Defrag the Drive as and use it on all your PC's it called Perfect Disk Pro 12.5 and you can't ask for a better Defragger then this one and make sure to do a Boot Time Defrag after Defragging normaly with PD 12.5 also this program is priced right 29.99 for one PC or 34.99 for 3 PC's,I find it really works well to help speed up your system if it is running slow and you have not Defragged your Drive in a while and like the other's guys said if the drive is getting close to being filled right up it will start to run slower.