Upgrading drive in external Housing?

chorlton

Hi

I have been using a 150gb LaCie firewire drive for back up but it's full so I need more capacity...

It seems a waste to bin it and buy a replacement - is it possible to just put a larger drive in the housing?

And if it is.. how do I know what the biggest/best drive I can put in is?

thanks

fwor

Generally speaking, yes. If you can't find an exact model number and get the full spec, you need to open it up and examine it to see what size and type the existing HDD is, then get a larger replacement of the same type.

Usually there are only four types - small (2.5") or large (3.5") and PATA (IDE) or SATA.

Here's what a SATA connector looks like:
http://www.cpustuff.com/images/D/satal_1.JPG

And this guide shows a typical PATA/IDE setup:
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-hard-drive.htm

You may find that there is an adaptor board that you need to remove from the old drrive and put on the new one - often fiddly to do but just takes patience.

espresso

chorlton wrote: »

is it possible to just put a larger drive in the housing?

Generally yes but with Lacie drives this is not usually possible. You would need to open it up to check first.

fwor

espresso wrote: »

Generally yes but with Lacie drives this is not usually possible.

Must admit I've never opened a Lacie specifically. What do they do - use some type of proprietary connector instead of IDE/SATA?

Just curious...

espresso

fwor wrote: »

Must admit I've never opened a Lacie specifically. What do they do - use some type of proprietary connector instead of IDE/SATA?

Just curious...

Well they seem to have taken the term integrated electronics a step further e.g. more than the standard drive interface is on the PCB i.e. USB/Firewire.

elvch01

The additional cost of a new housing for a new 3.5" SATA drive is only a few quid so I would bite the bullet & get either the parts for, or a complete external unit. The advantage being that you can ensure that you have the best compromise for price/performance/capacity and you will KNOW that the new disk will fit physically & electrically. You can then connect both drives and copy from one to the other, thus preserving your existing data on your new disk.

Leopard

elvch01 wrote: »

The additional cost of a new housing for a new 3.5" SATA drive is only a few quid so I would bite the bullet & get either the parts for, or a complete external unit. The advantage being that you can ensure that you have the best compromise for price/performance/capacity and you will KNOW that the new disk will fit physically & electrically. You can then connect both drives and copy from one to the other, thus preserving your existing data on your new disk.

I agree with this advice in principle but the cost depends upon what interface the OP wants (or needs).

If the OP's computer is an older Mac, for example, it may well have only USB1 ports plus Firewire. Three of the Macs I still use currently are thus equipped (although one of them can use USB2 by means of a powered CardBus and another could be given a USB2 PCI card - but this all adds to the expense).

Even USB2 is irritatingly slow by today's standards and a 3.5" drive is definitely going to need a mains power supply.

So, a decent housing, with additional interfaces (which the OP may require) is not as dismissively cheap as you suggest.

Certainly, however, I share your view that it's nice to build your own external hard drives, picking an enclosure that suits your needs (not all have an on/off switch, for simple example) and has all the connectivity that you need - and then intalling a drive of speed, capacity and repute that will serve you well.

Personally, I like and trust the enclosures - both 2.5" and 3.5" - that are sold by Other Wold Computing. With shipping, they may be a little more expensive but they are extremely well-built, reliable and long-lasting.

The additional cost of a well built enclosure that will not let you down is a better investment than a cheap one of unknown provenance and quality that could fail, damaging the hard drive itself and all the precious data that is on it.


chorlton,

You do need to be careful about simply putting a larger capacity drive into the housing of a smaller capacity one - particularly with older models. A complete external hard drive is supplied with a housing and internals that just meet - but do not exceed - the requirements of the drive with which it was originally supplied. Some housings, for example, dispense with an internal fan for drives of small capacity but need one (and also a correspondingly higher-rated power supply) for drives of larger capacity.

There's also the spin-speed of the drive to take into consideration. A 7,200 rpm hard drive will be more demanding of its host than a 5,400 rpm hard drive.

We have five 3.5" LaCie IDE external drives (four D2 and one Porsche) in our household and they are only safe for drives up to a capacity of 320 GB. They have no fans and a 7,200 rpm IDE drive of more than 320 GB would both be in danger of overheating and would draw more power than its housing is designed to supply.

So, do some research on your drive enclosure before you simply stuff a 500 GB hard drive into it!

chorlton

Thank you - as ever there is some great, mind focussing advice on this forum!

I know that mine is a LaCie Porsche 3.5" drive, doesn't have a fan and is about 4 years ald - so I strongly suspect that the 320gb limit would apply.

In the short term 320gb would be a fix (my iMac HD is only 250gb) but i'm hoping to get a new iMac when the next version comes out - and taking longer term into consideration I think the most cost effective thing to do is bite the bullet and get at least a 1tb drive.

mrscruffy

chorlton wrote: »

I know that mine is a LaCie Porsche 3.5" drive

I have one of these (USB version). I swopped the 80GB IDE drive for a 500GB one with no problems what so ever.

Just prise open the bottom with a knife and there you go.

Having said that, I only switch it one whilst performing the back-up process so no real danger of overheating