TeeJayHoward
Limpness Supreme
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2005
- Messages
- 12,269
How to convert an external USB HDD to an internal
The first thing you will need is obviously the USB enclosure. I picked this one up at CompUSA for $30. You can get one off eBay for about half that.
This is what is included in the package.
And when you open it up...
First, disconnect the front LEDs. You can use these later if you wish, but I decided not to. My case is cluttered enough, as is.
Unscrew the circuitboard from the chassis and disconnect the power switch.
Remember the location of the hole that the power switch connects to.
See this? It's big, it's bulky, it's... Useless. Keep it or toss it, I don't care.
You might want to test it first, though... Note that I placed a HDD jumper in the place of the power switch. It now is on full time.
More testing is always good.
WARNING - What I am about to do is dumb. I had to buy a soldering iron because mine is a bit... Uhh... Broken and lost.
I told you I was dumb. I cut up a 3-pin to 4-pin fan pass-through dohickey and soldered it to the wires on the board. It would have been smarter to replace the existing right-angle molex with a different gendered one, or to solder the wires right into the board. If I create another one, I will do it the "right" way. I then proceeded to wrap the wires in electrical tape, seperating each wire so they don't short out.
Example.
Here I screwed the circuitboard on to the back of a 40GB WD HDD utilizing 2 motherboard screws and spacers.
Unfortunatly only one side fit. This isn't that side
This is.
I used a molex splitter and some garbage ties to connect the HDD and the circuitboard to one power socket.
Here I attached a USB socket to my mobo tray, and connected it to the header on the mobo. Plug in the HDD, and cross your fingers.
I'm sure a lot of you are wondering WHY the hell I did this. In theory, it's possible to have nothing but USB cables cluttering up a computer case, and these are easily hidden. In addition, every HDD installed this way is "theoretically" hot-swappable. In practice, a custom drive enclosure (Like those $15 IDE racks at CompUSA... Hmm...) would make it hot-swappable. In reality, I was just bored.
The first thing you will need is obviously the USB enclosure. I picked this one up at CompUSA for $30. You can get one off eBay for about half that.
This is what is included in the package.
And when you open it up...
First, disconnect the front LEDs. You can use these later if you wish, but I decided not to. My case is cluttered enough, as is.
Unscrew the circuitboard from the chassis and disconnect the power switch.
Remember the location of the hole that the power switch connects to.
See this? It's big, it's bulky, it's... Useless. Keep it or toss it, I don't care.
You might want to test it first, though... Note that I placed a HDD jumper in the place of the power switch. It now is on full time.
More testing is always good.
WARNING - What I am about to do is dumb. I had to buy a soldering iron because mine is a bit... Uhh... Broken and lost.
I told you I was dumb. I cut up a 3-pin to 4-pin fan pass-through dohickey and soldered it to the wires on the board. It would have been smarter to replace the existing right-angle molex with a different gendered one, or to solder the wires right into the board. If I create another one, I will do it the "right" way. I then proceeded to wrap the wires in electrical tape, seperating each wire so they don't short out.
Example.
Here I screwed the circuitboard on to the back of a 40GB WD HDD utilizing 2 motherboard screws and spacers.
Unfortunatly only one side fit. This isn't that side
This is.
I used a molex splitter and some garbage ties to connect the HDD and the circuitboard to one power socket.
Here I attached a USB socket to my mobo tray, and connected it to the header on the mobo. Plug in the HDD, and cross your fingers.
I'm sure a lot of you are wondering WHY the hell I did this. In theory, it's possible to have nothing but USB cables cluttering up a computer case, and these are easily hidden. In addition, every HDD installed this way is "theoretically" hot-swappable. In practice, a custom drive enclosure (Like those $15 IDE racks at CompUSA... Hmm...) would make it hot-swappable. In reality, I was just bored.