Ext HDD Caddy Question

[Taffycat]

Hi Guys

I have been considering buying a HDD caddy This One but would appreciate running my idea past some of you, just to ensure that I'm on the right lines (and am not heading for a gi-normous mess-up )

My now elderly Rock laptop, has started cracking at the point where the outer part of the lid meets the hinges. No, it has never been roughly handled at any time, but as I've previously found, this area on laptops tends to weaken over time (probably due to a mixture of heat, dryness and "plastic fatigue" plus movement of course.)

Anyway, it is long out of guarantee now and eventually, the cracking is likely to affect the display i.e., causing black-outs and "interference" type flashes and so on (which is what happened to our very first old Advent ME laptop. It was still under guarantee though, so we were able to get the top replaced at that time.)

Anyway - I thought of getting the aforementioned caddy, then inserting the Rock's HDD (2.5 IDE 60 Gb with a height of 9.5 mm) so that I can hopefully access it from one of the desktops...? But is that likely to work okay do you think? Or am I missing a big flaw somewhere along the line? I rather like the idea of being able to access all the bits and bobs on that HD from the desktop PC (probably the XP Pro one, seeing as the Rock is also XP Pro.)

So does anyone have any views or advice please? Any observations will be greatly appreciated, because I have never fiddled with an actual hard-drive before.

Thank you very much for reading this

 

[Anon_F]

So it's not just my Rock Laptop that has broken round the hinges, yours too.
As for the caddy, it's the same thing i'm thinking of doing with my old toshiba laptop.
Should work OK, but you will have to format it again to NTFS if using XP, FAT32 will work on it i think?

PS: Please write in larger text.

 

[Taffycat]

Heck, I'm sorry about the text - thank you for mentioning it Feckit. On XP it looked "right" but reading it on Vista, it looks tiny! So apologies everyone, have just altered it

I didn't know you had a Rock laptop too. It's a shame that this happens, because the rest of the PC is okay, apart from the keys being a tad worn, but they've had a lot of use so to be expected. However, as for the cracks, before we had the desktops, the Rock was always kept open on the desk, so it's not as if it has had a lot of opening and closing.

Ooh-er... I was hoping to avoid formatting, because I really wanted to be able to use it "as-is." I thought that it would maybe work in a similar way to plugging in a thumb-drive/flash drive, so that I could plug in and access everything................but I guess that is being a bit hopeful?

Thank you for replying

 

[muckshifter]

... the USB-HD2.5 draws its power directly from the USB Bus ...

oops, better get one with it's own power supply ... some PCs don't do too good at supplying enough juice.

 

[Taffycat]

Hellooo Mucks ... I did see one which had a power supply, now that you mention it. Yes, thinking about it, I suppose it would be better not to deplete the PC's power resources. I shall have another look around

The bit that I still can't quite get my head around, is what would really happen if I just swapped over the disk, intact (well hopefully ) plugged-in and "played" it? Effectively, it is another whole OS containing programmes and applications, etc.... so would it "fight" with the resident XP OS? (I find it hard to think that it wouldn't.... and yet...?)

I've been puzzling over this for ages, so I think I've just succeeded in confusing myself now

 

[floppybootstomp]

What format is your hard drive? As the caddy you linked to gives the title as a SATA drive then says it's a PATA (IDE) in the spec. Best make sure you get the correct format.

If you put the 2.5" drive in the caddy you won't be able to run the XP OS but you will be able to access any files and documents on it from any computer using the NTFS file system (assuming the drive in the laptop has been formatted with NTFS).

After you've retrieved all you want you could format the drive and use it for storage.

Alternatively, you could just get a 'mirror' image network cable, access the laptop from the desktop and copy all your files and documents across. But doing it that way, of course, would mean you'd forfeit a 60Gb hard drive, I think the caddy sounds like a good idea

Edit: Oops, I've just re-read your first post, it's an IDE drive, isn't it?

 

[muckshifter]

No, it won't 'fight' with your 'C' drive ... or it shouldn't.


The external drive will have, at least, been designated 'E' as there should be the ordinary 'C' drive + a 'D' CDRom drive of some sort ... you may find if you can "boot" to USB that you may get it to work ... highly unlikely.

Any "Data" on the drive should be accessable ... you may get some "stand-alone" programs to run, those that were not installed but run from their .EXE

 

[Taffycat]

Hi Flops and Mucks... Actually, I've just fired-up the Rock, and ran SIW just to check details - it says that the HD is made by Fujitsu, IDE ATA, NTFS 3.1 - which looks slightly different to what it said in the handbook specs which I was previously quoting. (Tsk! I thought I could rely on that book. I couldn't run the Rock earlier because I needed to move stuff around - I'm sorry for the confusion.)

I did wonder about using a cable to transfer things across, as you suggested... on the debit side, the 60 GB disk is only about half-full, so wouldn't be too space-hogging really I don't think. So when you mention a "mirror image network cable" ... are you referring to something that can only be used with a network router (the PCs are not yet networked at all.) Or one of those jobbies that connects USB to USB direct?

I would still be tempted to get the caddy as well, because short of getting busy with the duct-tape, those cracks are not going to get better methinks so might as well have a "home" to give the HD.

I am grateful for all your help - even though I am now doing that "girlie thing" of being completely indecisive again

 

[floppybootstomp]

So when you mention a "mirror image network cable" ... are you referring to something that can only be used with a network router (the PCs are not yet networked at all.) Or one of those jobbies that connects USB to USB direct?

You can network two computers loaded with Windows without a hub or router using a network cable only, between the two Ethernet ports.

You use a mirror image cable between the two and run the Setup Network Wizard and then the two machines will be able to see each other. Don't forget to enable sharing on the drives and My Documents.

A cable should only cost about a fiver and for the short term is a cheaper option than the caddy, you could always purchase the caddy when the Rock looks to be on it's last knockings.

 

[Taffycat]

This sounds like a good idea I will check around to see what cables are available locally.... failing that I'll order one online

Thank you again for all the help and advice -