How to Use Hard Drive Enclosures

Hard drive enclosures turn an otherwise internal hard drive into an external one. You empower the drive with mobility, taking it with you to use on any system that allows it. All you need for a hard drive enclosure is the hard drive; it comes with all the necessary cords to connect to the drive. Not all enclosures support all drives however, so reference the information included with your enclosure.

Instructions

1. Open the hard drive enclosure and place the hard drive in it.

2. Connect the necessary wiring to the back of your hard drive.

3. Close the hard drive enclosure.

4. Connect the power cord into the back of the enclosure. Flip on the power switch.

5. Connect the drive to your computer.

6. Open the drive through your computer's operating system. If using Windows, open "Computer" and look for the drive there. Mac users will see an icon of the drive popup on their desktops. You can now move data freely to the drive.

7. Disconnect the drive once you've copied all the data you need. You can connect the drive to any other computer and make a copy of the information saved on it.