CNET How To - Make an external hard drive

Give your old hard drives a new lease on life. Sharon Vaknin shows you how a drive from an old laptop or desktop can be repurposed for use with your current computer.

[ra]

You don't need to plug in both USB connections. The second connection is for auxillary power when the primary USB port isn't capable of providing enough power. Most modern USB ports do satisfy the power requirements for portable hard drives.

[TheCharleseye]

Another wonderful video by @sharonvak. C|Net Execs, give this woman a raise!

[Stephn]

wow not often you get the smartest AAAND the prettiest in the same video!!

[Schnadr]

Very interesting video though, I didn't know how to save or use some old files located on my old laptop (rip).

Thank you !

[alphabeta]

Hi Sharon,

This is great. Any posts on connecting a Chromecast direct to a Denon AV Receiver.. Thanks Jagdish

[mariusghenghiu]

Thank you very much! Loved it a lot! :D

[bangalorepavan]

thank a lot for the information so it can be done

[KOSAMAGAMES]

Thank you I have been asking for this and finally!
My laptops ahrd drive was failing so I want to buy a new one but use the old one as a back up or external hard drive for some file programs Like Maya and CS5.5 and after affects, thank you!

[xtwonyx]

If I was to buy this and use my hard drive in my old laptop which is a Dell D620, can I download software onto that hard drives other than my hard drive already installed into my new laptop.

[daimons]

I dont know how to make an external hard drive but I do know how to plant my seed woman ;)

[epsilontic]

Is the enclosure she touched on Ebay?

[akdgames]

can i use it for video editing purposes of game designing. I think that can we load up video editing projects from that hard drive. How long can we use that hard drive.

[nickconrad]

It should, although you may have to format it for the mac.

[wwegeru]

its typically better than a laptop/netbook/ultrabook for a fraction of the price with the ability to upgrade anything

[FenLupimo]

boy, some comments here are creepy '-'

[ee]

Do you need to delete your os partition and reformat your drive before use?

[roholkachaloo]

And the question is where can i buy the enclosure and that double USB cable!

[ricpred]

tnx ..i refresh my memory some how ..w ide hehe

[luigi_seiji]

yes i got a question were can i find one of thos dives to hook up my old hard drive i really wanna make my own hard dive thanks soo mush

[Youloufy]

If I put the second USB cable in a different computer will the both computers be able to use the hard drive or only one computer.