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August 4th, 2023 09:00

External Hard Drive

I have just purchased a Hitachi DeskStar HDP 725050GLA360 3.5 50oGB 7200rpm 16MpSATAHard Disk Drive to use as a external back-up storage. Q: How do I connect to my Laptop?

 

10 Elder

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28.7K Posts

August 4th, 2023 09:00

If you just purchased a bare drive (and it's quite old, it should be noted;  Hitachi branded drives  haven't been manufactured in over 10 years, Hitachi having sold its drive business to Western Digital in 2012), you'll need to mount it in a 3.5" external drive case with a power supply and a USB connection (presumably) for the notebook you have (and haven't mentioned).

 

4 Operator

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1.8K Posts

August 4th, 2023 09:00

You can buy either a USB external drive adapter, or a USB external drive enclosure. Either will connect to a USB port on your laptop.

However, since you bought a 3.5" drive, you will need an adapter or enclosure that comes with a power adapter. If you had bought a 2.5" laptop drive, you could connect that to an external drive adapter or external drive enclosure that likely would not require external power. If you got that drive at a very cheap price, okay, otherwise buy a 2.5" drive or a pre-made drive.

Due to competition, sometimes pre-made 2.5" external USB drives, such as WD Passport drives, are often not much more expensive than buying a raw drive plus adapter/enclosure.

10 Elder

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28.7K Posts

August 5th, 2023 04:00

3.5" drives cannot be powered by the system -- the external case should have come with an external power adapter.  If you purchased it used and it did not, it's probably going to be less expensive to buy a new case with a power adapter than it will be to find a compatible power supply for an existing case -- there are many different types of connector, polarity settings, and power adapter ratings.

 

10 Elder

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28.7K Posts

August 5th, 2023 07:00

Rather than backing up to 15+ year old drives that are well past their expected lifespans, a 2T external drive brand new is only about $70.

https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Black/dp/B07VTFN6HM?th=1

 

4 Posts

August 5th, 2023 02:00

Hi thanks for your response, yes I do have a 3.5 case & I have a SATE-USB adaptor lead but how do I get a power supply to Drive? I am using it as a back/storage device for my Dell Inspiron 1545.   There seems to be another connection point with 2 pins adjacent to were you plug in the adaptor lead would that be the point where I get power to hard drive? in witch case do I need another lead with a power source that I would plug into H/D?

PS the SATA hard drive was not new APR 2008

4 Posts

August 5th, 2023 02:00

Hi thanks for your response, yes I do have a 3.5 case & I have a SATE-USB adaptor lead but how do I get a power supply to Drive? I am using for as back/storage device for my Dell Inspiron 1545.   There seems to be another connection point with 2 pins adjacent to were you plug in the adaptor lead would that be the point where I get power to hard drive? in witch case do I need another lead?

PS the SATA hard drive was not new APR 2008

4 Posts

August 5th, 2023 07:00

Hi Thanks for that I guess I will have look another case then with power source.

I was thinking I could use  my other external case with H/D that does have an external power lead for the Hitachi DeskStar 40GB H/D, but does not have the capacity for my needs i.e. swapping existing H/D in Inspiron to a SSD

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