Can I replace External Drive with internal?

N

Notleh

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2010
Messages
388
My Maxtor III external drive started making weird noises and since it was out of warranty I took it apart to take a look. Luckily, it looks like the fan is just going bad!

However, when I had it apart I was surprised (yes, I know I am a noob) when I saw what looked like a regular internal drive hooked up to a circuit board. I had always thought they were so damn expensive because they had a special HDD or somethign or something.

Anyway, I have 2 questions. If this HDD ever goes bad, can I just stick in a new internal drive? Or, if I just wanted to put in a newer, higher capacity drive (such as a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB) can I just plug it in?

Thank you in advance.

External Maxtor III:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144056

HDD inside the Maxtor:
IMG_0541.JPG


IMG_0542.JPG
 
There is nothing special about the drives inside externals. Yes, you probably can replace the drive with a different one. The only reason I can think why that will not work is if the bios on the external circuitry was specifically programmed to not use any other drive.
 
drescherjm said:
There is nothing special about the drives inside externals. Yes, you probably can replace the drive with a different one. The only reason I can think why that will not work is if the bios on the external circuitry was specifically programmed to not use any other drive.
Click to expand...
Some newer WD external drives will not permit you to swap the drives out actually. The USB connector is part of the PCB attached to the drive. With that one however, you aren't likely to have any problems.
 
Thank you for the replies! I may just give it a shot because we bought 2 of these and had to RMA 4 times in 6 months. Not really excited about the longevity of this drive and HDD prices are so cheap atm that it is worth a shot.
 
Are you sure it was the drive or the external enclosure. A lot of failures happen at the enclosure with the drives being totally fine.
 
drescherjm said:
Are you sure it was the drive or the external enclosure. A lot of failures happen at the enclosure with the drives being totally fine.
Click to expand...

yeah, take the drive out and plug it into your system, then run some diagnostics on it, of course backup everything you want from it in case a reformat is needed...
 
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