Can I salvage an old hardrive and turn it into an external drive?

Question

My son got careless and broke the screen on his laptop. The drive is fine, but the screen is cracked down the middle, so that' AFU.  I got him a new laptop, but he can't transfer his iTunes over to the new machine. (Apparently you can only put a song on a particular number of devices before you have to buy it again?).  We researched software ideas to move the music, but apparently that's not going to be "doable". So I thought, could we pull the drive from the old machine and adapt it to work as an external drive on the new machine?  Would there be a kit for something like this? He's got a couple thousand songs, and I can't afford to buy them all again.

ralph · Accepted Answer

You can get an external drive enclosure for 2.5" drives. Here is a link to a good one, they are very easy to assemble. Your main issue will be navigating to the right directory in the external hard drive since it's not going to boot or anything like your old laptop did. Once you find the right directory, it would be easy to either add that directory to your iTunes list of places to search for music or to copy over the music from the old iTunes folder and into the new one.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool...

There are cheaper alternatives out there for as low as $7.99 but they are all USB 2.0 and will be painfully slow on a multi thousand song transfer rate.

Good luck!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2300574&CatId=2781

There are cheaper alternatives out there for as low as $7.99 but they are all USB 2.0 and will be painfully slow on a multi thousand song transfer rate.

Good luck!

Shibahad-gih-kihadarman · Answer

"You don't seem to know a whole lot about the Big Bang Theory.

For one thing, nobody thinks it "contradicts physics". It IS physics."

And you seem to not know a whole lot about the real world. There are a ****load of YouTube persona and political figures that will swear on their life that the big bang is totally impossible and a complete lie.

"Secondly, it was discovered by a CATHOLIC PRIEST."

Aww how cute, think you're so smart don't you? Think the arrogant atheist didn't already know this? Bet you didn't know that his name is Georges Lemaître?

Go troll somewhere else dude. Don't return to my questions if you have nothing of intelligence to contribute.

SSP Bowl Dude · Answer

Drive enclosures are pretty cheap.  

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2781&name=2.5-external-drive-enclosure&

Make sure you get the right enclosure for the drive

blank · Answer

Yes, you can. Just follow what others have said.

Can I salvage an old hardrive and turn it into an external drive?

4 Answers