Turn an Old Laptop Hard Drive into an External Hard Drive

[@sashankprabu1126]

dude instead of deleting the partitions individually, u could have just opened diskpart selected disk 3 and cleaned the entire disk. then you could have created the partition way more easily. otherwise, great video :)

[@Maraksot78]

I actually learned about the "clean" command shortly after posting this video. You're right it is much easier to be able to remove all the partitions simultaneously if that's what you're wanting to do... which is what I wanted to do in this video. I've pinned your comment so hopefully people will see our conversation here and learn that rather than selecting and deleting each partition individually if they want to remove them all simultaneously they can simply select their disk and then type "clean" and hit enter and be done.

[@sashankprabu1126]

Hey man, thanks for the reply, I recently started watching your videos, And its pretty good, also I think this was the first time I've ever commented on a video on youtube

[@sashankprabu1126]

Thanks !!

[@Maraksot78]

@@deletedelete2016 I would use diskpart like I show in the video. Rather than doing like I did in the video and typing delete partition override you can instead select the disk you want and then just type clean and it will remove all the partitions on the drive simultaneously.

[@deletedelete2016]

@@Maraksot78 My apologies, already saw the whole video, I was at work doing half job haha so I couldn't see the video completely. Gonna make the exact same thing using diskpart in a few hours because I made a huge mistake: full hard drive format from Disk Management :( Should I let it run until is done or pull the hard drive off like a real man? Haha

[@ChadwickVonGriffindorIII]

Before this guy, too many of my old harddrives went in the trash. Since, I've repurposed three drives, and I couldn't be more grateful!

[@rainyrivers7109]

Just want to say thankyou for adding the Canadian Amazon link I've never seen any other KZbinr think about the canadian viewers .

[@mikegutierrez9845]

This worked like a charm! Got rid of those recovery partitions and now have a new storage drive. I would like to add that you can use a spare sata and power cable on your desktop to perform these tasks. That is what I did. Thank you very much for keeping the steps simple to follow.

[@MarkWebber-xm5pk]

You made it very easy. I followed along as you explained the how-tos and paused when needed. I did this for my wife using our Windows laptop so she'd have additional storage for her Chromebook. The one I did for my Mac was easy: I just reformatted it and now it's the Time Machine backup.

[@Maraksot78]

Awesome! Happy to hear the video helped you out. Enjoy!

[@sc9819]

very straight forwards and almost exactly what I needed. I ended up doing DISKPART a bit different by using the clean function on the entire thing since I didn't need to worry about any files on it. But overall super glad to have such a straightforwards and well explained tutorial available

[@pac05055]

At first I was not able to delete the partitions on my former Macbook Pro HDD with the right click method on Disk Management, but after that I tried it with diskpart it worked like magic. Thanks to this video I can now use that HDD plus another SSD for my current MacBook Pro which only has a 256GB drive, thank you so much!

[@Maraksot78]

you're welcome. Enjoy! :)

[@kiomie77]

Was terrified while doing this but ended up working fine. Thank you very much for the tutorial!

[@Maraksot78]

Very happy the video helped you. Enjoy your external drive. :)

[@allthebennetts]

OMG so clear and concise with a pace that was ideal for anyone who might be trying to follow. And to pin someone else's comment at the top to clarify "cleaning" the partition - you sir are a gent.

[@HeelDries]

I was so anxious doing this but i got through every step with you. Thank you. Great Video.

[@PoeticSouldj]

Thanks man, been using my old laptop hdd without being formatted coz I thought formatting it would render it useless but I appreciate a video this detailed in all the steps necessary and now I use the hdd as a single partition external good for just storing everything I need, thank u

[@timskinner99]

Excellent video! Love the step-by-step approach (no shortcuts).

[@umarzahid89]

Thank you so much for your help. Actually i changed my laptop hdd with ssd and i was thinking that what im gonna do with the hdd after installing the ssd then i watched your video and i was like WTH I didn’t know that and now i won’t have to buy an extra external hdd and then i bought ORICO enclosure and worked so amazingly fast. I’m so happy now. Thanks again.

[@Maraksot78]

You're very welcome. Thanks so much for checking out the video. Enjoy your "new" external hard drive. :)

[@precillajavier2680]

I just played your video now.. 4years after 😄 but I just want to say thank you!! You solved my problem with my old hdd as back up ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@KaaruTab]

Wow! Thank you so much for this tutorial. My old Lenovo 500gb hard drive is now ready 😆. I never thought my broken laptop can still be of use.

[@sangomoon5456]

Mine went totally different. When i opened disk management and let the wizard do its thing it asked me basically if i wanted to convert my basic disk into a dynamic disk, so i got scared and said no. Then i went into diskpart and deleted one partition with no problem, but the final active partition (O/S or partition3) won't delete. "the arguments specified for this command are not valid." Solved: I had to manually delete the partition called O/S, through disk management. Diskpart could only delete the OM partition. I didn't agree to making it dynamic at any point. Once O/S deleted i got one large empty partition like you had. Thank you for this video, i couldn't have don't it without you.

[@lpacheco06226]

Your video helped me to decide what to do with my old laptop hard drive. The laptop won't turn on and I still have tons of things I didn't get to back up. thank god I can recover all the stuff. thanks

[@ladylee7268]

Thank you so much for this video! The old hard drive from my broken old netbook was very useful now and I was able to make this into a new one. 💖

[@Woodstock1415]

Thanks very much for this video. I had removed a 500GB HDD from an old laptop and now I can use it as an external drive. Easy to follow instructions, thanks again.

[@Maraksot78]

Great to hear! Enjoy. :)

[@SimplyAnca7]

Thank you! I was able to do all this and have a „new” external drive. The instruction were all very useful.

[@JRRenkenberger]

I enjoyed your goofy sense of humor and well-paced instructions. Thanks!

[@DemonHunter1972]

Your video was extremely helpful! I replaced an old HDD from my laptop and wanted to use it on my desktop as extra storage. Worked like a champ! Oh and by the way I had an extra sata cable so I just hooked it up that way and powered it directly through my power supply. Thanks again!

[@Maraksot78]

Glad it helped! :)

[@DrixWorks]

Thank you for sharing this tutorial! I can now use my old laptop hardrive as external drive. Thank you so much!

[@dazzthepatriot8389]

Thanks so much for this. I am NOT a tech savvy guy. But this walk through made this process easy and i now have an external hard drive for all my stuff. Thanks again.

[@Maraksot78]

No problem. Glad the video helped you out. Thanks for watching. :)

[@dazzthepatriot8389]

Hey Sir, would this same process work with an old desktop hard drive?

[@Maraksot78]

+Common Man's Combatives yes, you can turn a 3.5" drive (typical destop drive) into an external drive however they require more power than a 2.5" laptop drive to operate so the USB cable alone doesn't provide enough power. The enclosure for one is of course bigger and then requires a power cable to be plugged into it along with the USB cable. But all the other stuff I show in this video about deleting partitions and formatting the drive works the same.

[@dazzthepatriot8389]

Maraksot78 Thanks. I ordered the enclosure but I wasn't sure if the partitions part was the same. Thanks again. Now I have two places to store all my important data. 👍

[@Maraksot78]

+Common Man's Combatives cool, best of luck to you. Enjoy. :)

[@markanthonymetzger8174]

Wow man! I love you! You saved my 1TB external that I thought will gonna be garbage!

[@RedShirtGuitar-el8sd]

excellent..gonna use this old 15. TB for a time-machine backup on new macbook

[@MrJesseMainor]

You got my like at the "important data" joke. +5 comedic prowess to you sir.

[@3KPMarketing]

Thanks for this, i am going to go and grab everything out of my old laptops!! Hella Smart

[@joehair3446]

thanks a lot dude. I was confused why my unallocated space is divided in two but after following what you did i found out there was a hidden partition in the drive and after deleting it my disk is good to go 👍

[@Shazian_Fleur]

I have used this video about 4 times....BRILLIANT! Thank You :)

[@ahmadsyamilbasri5107]

Thank you so much... this is very helping out and it really work well.. Now I able to use my old hard drive to be external hard drive

[@waynetetley584]

Just done mine this morning. Really helpful. Thanks, Wayne (England)

[@Maraksot78]

You're welcome. Thanks for checking out the video and for the very kind comment. Cheers to you sir. :)

[@setosofiadenise4936]

Thankyou so much. I can now use my old hard drive as external hard drive

[@wolfdog3312]

Best video intro ever I dislike it when people talk too much

[@jedijessic]

Thanks for your video. My old laptop stopped working, the power button worked in the morning but later did not for my mother. I didn't really want to get rid of it but what to do with it? Now to see what else I can figure out.......

[@nikbart1744]

You made it so simple - worked first time - thanks

[@Maraksot78]

You're welcome. Thanks for watching the video and for the kind comment. :)

[@roy4410]

thanks for the help. I am going to do this next week when I get the parts . hope it goes this easy for me

[@Subwo0f3r]

What a legend. This video was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much!

[@Rinyotsu]

Thank you, a 750gb hdd now has new life without having to learn how to take apart and install correctly in my new laptop. I'm anxious about it because it entails installing a fragile cable and I'd rather not break it, so $10 for a decent device provides me peace of mind.

[@pruthuviishak6750]

Thaks buddy... Working with you is awesome... 😎🤩🤩

[@roimarcotoriano6586]

This is so informative and entertaining as well. Can't wait for my enclosure to arrive and follow these steps!

[@Maraksot78]

Thanks for watching and for the kind comment. Best of luck to you creating your own external HDD. :)

[@roimarcotoriano6586]

Maraksot78 we had the same experience with the senior prom though.... 😂😂

[@Maraksot78]

Sorry to hear that man. Lol 😂

[@HKLNTCNA]

Great video I learnt from you how extend the used HDD, Thanks

[@henpossible]

HAHA! Important data... I see what you did there. LOVE the humor! OUTSTANDING introduction - I would just point out the path to $home and have them copy that entire folder to the USB drive. . Great vid!

[@timothymorrisii7165]

Great video, helped save me a considerable amount of time and money, also dude reminds me of a bargain bin Christian Slater. I think I'll subscribe. I like it.

[@unique7893]

Thanks, man. This is exactly what I was looking for!

[@davidjenkins6775]

This is what intros should be like!! Good video man.

[@michaelogbuigwe7055]

Fantastic! I've recovered my hard drive!

[@asiandramageek]

a good intro would be "someone at work ate my sandwich" or "my best friend and myyy sister ..."

[@narjune1]

So helpful and clearly described each step.

[@ummubarakah4714]

Thank you. Very helpful. Greetings from Malaysia !

[@Astonvanquishs]

Thank you very much for this video!!! it was SUPER helpful!!! you got yourself a new subscriber!!!

[@wonderwallbanger]

Great video, simple straightforward. Question though can I use my very old 2012 laptop HD for external use for my ps4/ps5?

[@Maraksot78]

Yes

[@upgradedmrmelon]

Did the trick! Thanks,you're the best!

[@NoahtheGameplayer]

reason why i wanna put alot of my driver stuff into my TB drive is because im on gaming laptop, so by storing alot of things into my TB drive, i would actually have no blocking space that will slow down my computer, onto its drive, so TB drive will actually be alot better.

[@mahigeek]

Just type clean after selecting the partition. You can just delete all the positions at once click.

[@Maraksot78]

yup... learned that literally the day after making this video. SMH

[@dukehavoc2850]

Awesome video thank you. Sorted myself and external hard drive from my old laptop. Will share the video :)

[@Maraksot78]

+stephen fletcher happy to hear the video helped you out. Thanks for watching and for sharing. :)

[@zeke7216]

Thank you so much! Your video help along and I know what to do when I have a next old hard drive

[@rubyrage12698]

Thank you so much! This video guided me through the process easily.

[@russ623]

Hi. I have just replaced an internal 3TB drive with a SSD. Just tried to used a Sata Adaptor but it does not register when connected with USB. You said the Sata adaptor is suitable for small powered SSD ( laptop ) so I am assuming the problem is a lack of power for the 3TB. How can I resolve this problem? I just want to clean and format the drive before selling. I am not an expert - DIY. Thank you.

[@soumyajitdas6598]

Thanks Big brother. Its always Easssy-Pezzzy with you .

[@Maraksot78]

Thanks man.

[@furbol653]

Thanks for this video 👍👍⭐⭐⭐ I didnt end up making my old hard drive an ext hard drive but used it as a clone for my current Mac lol. Since the old hard drive has already OS installed in it just had to reformat it to match Apple's new APFS, works fine, so now it's like I have a second "portable" Mac for $20 that can operate by plugging in to any Mac! Now Im just curious if Im gonna run into issues by doing this

[@nemanjakurucev9198]

Nice video mate, helped me in 2021. :)

[@keithortolano5706]

Thanks so much for making this video for less tech savvy people like myself.

[@Maraksot78]

you're very welcome. I'm always happy to get comments like yours. It's great to know that my video helped someone. Enjoy your new external hard drive. :)

[@javononicholson4838]

Still useful in 2020

[@elmalifico3708]

Awesome video. I wanted to try this with a desktop hard drive. Is the process the same? What kind of attachment would fit a desktop hard drive?

[@Maraksot78]

To do it with a desktop hard drive the process is the same except you need a different adapter that has a power adapter for it too. One like this... amzn.to/3e6i7ik

[@elmalifico3708]

Maraksot78 awesome man. Thank you for the response my friend.

[@MoaSize]

Thanks a million Maraksot78. A brilliant easy to follow tutorial. Like your style!

[@Maraksot78]

Thanks so much. Glad the video was helpful to you. Enjoy. :)

[@ray3789]

so helpful man, thank you and keep it up.

[@valeriegrenier9792]

I have an OLD laptop that I am attempting to salvage the hard drive from. It seems to have 48 pin. 44 and then 4. Any idea what I should be using for an adapter? Am I out of luck?

[@nievaacosta5556]

thank you very much. ..your video is very helpful! i did it following through.

[@jeffkillingsworth5750]

Worked like the charm. Thanks

[@dougdornbos5173]

THANK-YOU!!! I gave the thumbs up and subscribed. Excellent!

[@brandonflorida1092]

Why do you assume we want to reformat the external drive? Can we not just use it as is? Thanks.

[@petersonmuloki296]

Best teacher.

[@paolodonadio9056]

Thanks for the guide, It is really helpful 😀

[@troyt9007]

Great video. Exactly what I needed to know. Thank you

[@raymondisip8375]

Thanks dude it really helps me a lot

[@AyyassiJavier]

this has been very helpful!! i thank you good sir, regards all the way from malaysia

[@christianzulueta6581]

do you have a video how to turn a pc sata hard drive as an external hard drive for pc? i have an extra seagate barracuda 500 gb (ST500DM002) SATA, and I am using a desktop. thank you.

[@nicolastanzi4985]

best intro ever

[@mdamz21]

Thanks dude. Awesome video and you made it totally easy to do.

[@TheViajero12]

It works. Thanks champ.Very clear

[@Maraksot78]

No problem. Thanks for checking out the video. Enjoy! :)

[@gigtrek3926]

Thanks, after making this external drive can it be made into the boot drive for the PC and in fact the 1 & only hard drive on the PC?

[@atomicsassy]

I have a silver adhesive on my hard drive. Should I try to remove it?

[@Wra8h]

hi!! I need help. I took out my hard drive from my old laptop but a plastic piece is attached to/around the pins! making it impossible to attach the IDE connector I bought... what should I do?

[@mrrichardmichael1]

Thanks for the assist i was lost in the sauce on that one

[@a.littlefaith]

Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

[@VanposhSapru]

Worked for me. Thanks mate. Keep up the good work :)

[@Maraksot78]

Thanks much for checking out the video and for leaving a comment. I greatly appreciate it. :)

[@johnluk1481]

Hello. If I buy a new ssd for my laptop and make windows boot from there after formatting my laptop should I create a new partition or just install windows on the ssd and use it? Thanks!

[@raba650]

will this work for a 2.5 inch sshd laptop drive so I can use on my mac? Will the usb 3.0 work on a usb port that's not for usb 3.0?

[@notanadrian]

I did it like in the video and i would just like to ask if its okay not having the eject option on the drive?

[@DLCA13]

I can not eject correctly the HDD form my laptop? It appears that it’s being used, even when everything is already closed. What I did wrong?

[@ryanarrabis4614]

Thanks i love your explanation it so simple

[@hilham89]

Dude you saved me, thank you.

[@Maraksot78]

No problem. Happy to hear the video was helpful to you. :)

[@terotkuoppalabeyonddreams]

Will this work with taking out a Windows hd and swapping it out as an external for Chromebook. I know it's basically Linux, but have heard about some differences that have to be considered while 'crossing' anything with Win10--???

[@phillipjeromesolosa366]

This was very helpful thank you!

[@alfredoavila3706]

Would it be safe to use this cleaned out external drive for my ps4?

[@wolkaiserdrake9946]

from what I can understand, you can just use it as is with out deleting the particians, or is this prosses needed for the drive to act as an external? I dont really see the reason to remove the alocated areas unless there is a reason

[@Maraksot78]

You are correct. You don't need to remove the partitions if you don't want to. If you don't delete anything from the drive then you can still access all your files as they were on your computer before you removed the drive. All the file structure from before will remain in tact. In this video I just wanted to clear this drive off completely and start fresh so I showed how to do that.

[@rhettshipley4593]

I'm not weird I'm not weird I'm not weird strange but not weird. Great vid.

[@David-zc4sq]

Hi sir, I was trying to install windows 8 on a machine that had windows 7 in the process by mistake I formatted the partition with the old windows on. Now I can’t go on to install the w8 os, it says that it cannot find the os. Do you know the way out of it? Could you please help me out? Thanks a lot.

[@Arsenal-81]

thanks dude this video helped out a lot.