external hard drive

[compbegin]

Could someone tell me the instructions of how to DIY an external hard drive. Please help. Thanks a lot.

 

[AWS]

I use USB externals. Get an enclosure and a drive. Put the drive in the exclosure, hook it up to a USB port and turn it on. Windows will recognize it as a mass external storage device and install the drivers. Once that happens you can format the drive and use it. You can also unplug it and connect it other computers to transfer files.

 

[GavinO]

Another option that has opened up with SATA is the use of a passthrough card in a PCI slot. It's basically a slot cover that you can connect a SATA cable to either side of, so that you can get full-speed SATA connectivity to an external drive. You do, of course, need to have a SATA controller with a spare channel that you can direct to the passthrough.