How to Build an External USB Hard Drive
External hard drives are great for carrying around lots of information and files, especially video and other multimedia files. External USB drives can be a little expensive, so building one yourself will probably save you a few bucks and help you learn a little more about computers. USB drives are most popular because of the speed of USB 2.0 and the fact that most computers have these connections readily available. Building an external USB drive is fairly simple and quick process.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Find or buy a regular internal IDE hard drive. You can get hard drives fairly inexpensively, and buying a regular internal drive to use for your external USB drive will be cheaper this way.
-
2
Buy a hard drive enclosure. They come in several different types and styles. Choose one that has an internal connection for an IDE drive and an external USB connection. Beyond the type of connection you need, the rest of the options are mostly 'bells and whistles'-type options that include things such as lights and color.
-
-
3
Set the jumper on the IDE internal drive to be master or single. You may have to try each setting to find which one the enclosure will work with. The enclosure will come with instructions that probably tell you which jumper setting to use. On the IDE drive there should be a diagram telling you how to set the jumper for different configurations.
-
4
Install the drive in the enclosure by mounting it and screwing it in place. Connect the power and data cables from the enclosure to the drive. Close the enclosure itself according to the directions.
-
5
Plug in the newly built external USB drive into an outlet and your computer and test to see if it works. You may have to reboot the computer to get the drive to be seen. If there are any problems, go back and make sure each connection is fully connected.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Make sure nothing is plugged in while you're building the unit.
References
- Photo Credit www.sxc.hu
