Building Your Own External Hard Drive

Posted by on 12/29 at 12:35 PM Permalink

If you are like me, there is never enough storage to keep all of your data intact. Many manufacturers offer external hard drives, but you pay a premium to buy them. If you want to save some money and get more storage space—consider building your own device. By doing this, you can custom make your own device and it’s easier than you might think.

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http://www.geeks.com/techtips/2005/techtips-DEC28-05.htm

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    Posted by Capn Jack  on  01/13  at  03:57 PM

  1. When assembling an external Hard drive:

    Be sure and verify the supply voltages under load with a digital multi-meter. Even .5 volts low on the +5 VDC can cause erratic drive operation. Most solid state control circuits will tolerate a slight over voltage, but become unstable at lower than rated voltages.

    2. Posted by socalrws  on  11/08  at  10:46 PM

  2. When I try to format the Hard drive with the jumper setting as “Master” on the Creative I/O HD Case with USB 2.0 and Firewire my XP SP1 OS show the drive in the mange/format tool but when I try to format it it does not allow.  The Icon representing the unformated disk is there but not addresable.

    Maxtor wants me to disconnect from case and instal in a desktop and run bootable disk diagnostic.

    Can you suggest anything else before doing this?

    the 200GB 7200 rpm HD is brand new but sat in box since last Xmas.

    3. Posted by viktorya  on  01/14  at  05:31 AM

  3. Thanks for the info.  I have a Mac PowerBook G4, bought a Western Digital Portable External USB hard drive and the Mac didn’t recognize it.  So more research.  The recommended for Mac La Cie - well the bad reviews have changed my mind about buying that one.  So what’s the solution?  I’m not tech savvy enough to build my own external HD but after losing all my info from a crash - I need to back up data.  Any suggestions?

    (*Victoria - I have not had any problems with external USB or Firewire Drive. They are universal and can be used on a Mac machine. You might have to Intiailize the drive using the disk utility for Mac OS to see that it’s there. Hope that helps!)

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    6. Posted by Randall Crawford  on  10/02  at  04:44 PM

  6. Hi- I need help! I just bought a Seagate ST3500830A 500GB UDMA/100 7200RPM 8MB IDE 3.5” HDD
    and a USB 2.0 to SATA + IDE (2.5/3.5/5.25") Adapter w/OTB from geeks.com. I have plugged the units together and the computer(XP, SP2) recognizes both the adapter and the mass storage unit and has installed the drivers. Windows did not ask me if I wanted to format this drive and the devices do not appear in “my computer” as a drive at all.
    I tried the same proceedure with my lap top XP, SP2)and got the same result however the laptop did momentarily show the drive-stating it was “RAW”.CXan someone give me some things to try to make this drive appear, Please.
    Thanks
    Randy

    7. Posted by Randall Crawford  on  10/02  at  04:57 PM

  7. OH nevermind!- I got it figured out, wasn’t as difficult as I had thought.

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    9. Posted by Blogward  on  12/02  at  04:17 AM

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    10. Posted by Nicole Kidman 2007  on  12/03  at  12:35 PM

  10. I am really impressed!!

    11. Posted by Capn Jack  on  12/03  at  01:08 PM

  11. I’ve had trouble with Maxtor drives co-existing with other drives before, but Why do you have the external drive jumpered as “Master”? You have a system in operation, so it had to have already booted off of a “Master” drive. The BIOS wont let you have two drives in the same system designated as “Master”. Jumper it as “Slave” and try it.

    12. Posted by Capn Jack  on  12/03  at  01:17 PM

  12. The filters for this board are ridiculous and need to be reset. How can you discus computers and not use the word “S-l-a-v-e”, without having it designated a “Curse Word”...Gimme a Break !!!

    13. Posted by promovare situri  on  01/17  at  09:00 AM

  13. I tried the same proceedure with my lap top XP, SP2)and got the same result however the laptop did momentarily show the drive-stating it was “RAW”.CXan someone give me some things to try to make this drive appear, Please.

    14. Posted by East Texas Slim  on  01/27  at  05:38 AM

  14. USB Portable (Sata)Hard Drive question.  How do you set up the hard drive so older computers can access the files.  I have friends and family that have not upgraded to newer computers.  So this portable USB hard drive needs to be Fat 32??
    So how do you set up a SATA hard drive with Fat32.  On my other computers, I just plugged it into the IDE, cable and power supply, inserted my Windows ME start up disk(floppy), then done a Fdisk allowed larger than 32Gb, and formatted and they work, with correct size and full use of Hard drive space.
    This one is a SATA, and do not have SATA inside my desktop computer.
    Any Ideas?
    Thanks in advance
    Larry

    15. Posted by Cheap PC Parts  on  02/07  at  01:46 PM

  15. @ Texas Slim

    You can’t format a volume that is larger than 32GB with FAT32 in XP. So try creating a partition that is 32GB on that HD and then make the rest of the HD NTFS.

    16. Posted by offshore solutions  on  02/16  at  10:55 AM

  16. The company developed its own spindle motor which was fitted within the casting containing the disks. This was a major departure, the motor usually being mounted external to the disks. The first product was designed to provide 190 MB of storage, but delays in getting magnetic heads to the Maxtor design resulted in the company taking what was available and the first drives were shipped with a capacity of only 140 MB.

    17. Posted by Angel999  on  04/22  at  01:11 AM

  17. Great tips.......!

    18. Posted by Adam-Victoria Mortgage Brokers  on  03/20  at  01:30 AM

  18. Really a good post, Post is good in regards of meaningful information. Thanks for the post.

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