Convert an external WD hard drive to internal use
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- So you have an external hard drive lying around that you now want to use in your computer, or maybe you even bought an external drive as it was cheaper to buy than a regular desktop drive. Congrats on the decision; there are many reasons why this might make sense for your internal storage.
However, some manufacturers have a trick up their sleeves preventing you to from having the drive recognized by your computer. This is not a matter of formatting the drive or changing a setting in the operating system to have it show up, no, it is hardware-based and your BIOS won't even know what to do with the drive. And yet, there is an easy fix to non-permanently modify your hard drive and have it work on your computer.
In this video, I will be showing you how to convert and modify a Western Digital white label drive for usage in a desktop computer as internal storage.
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For anyone wondering, for the seagate barracuda st3000dm001, you don't need to do the tape. Just plug it in the sata and molex and format it to be able to use it as an internal HDD
Brilliant! So well explained and demonstrated - I just cracked open the case and applied the tape, put it in as an internal and it works great! Thanks so much!!!
Did you have anything sored on the Drive? If so did you keep it? Or able to keep it?
Great stuff Bud
I was planning to expand my stroarage with a larger drive and repurpose the current external storage to replace a 500 gid internal use, as its atill good
Thereby discardind the smaller .
I was wondering can i do this with my WD black drive
From what I can see, the wd black drives are meant to be used in desktop devices anyway. So they should be working anyways and would not require modification?!
@@ALLGEAREDUP I have a WD 5tb, but i have a laptop omen with a HDD and sd slot i want 2 ssds - the HD is pretty slow - you think it would work
Really tempted to do this for my xbox one. I'd much rather pay 90-100 for a 4tb than about 130 for an internal one, and I hate having the hard drive hanging off the console
Agree. I assume transver speeds internally will be better compared to plugging in an external drive
4tb's are pretty cheap 60$
No, its more like 90-100. Unless you're talking used
Great video! I have a seagate portable expansion, so i have a question, does the 3.3v pins placement on seagate hdd is the same as WD hdd?
thanks a lot XD
that's why my newer external WD not detected as internal,
this is awesome hack
Will it work for WD Element 1TB as well?
It might
Convert that hdd to internal improves the write speed? I have it external and only 40mb of write speed...
a regular internal drive can go up to 500MB/s that is the maximum of the SATA protocol.
But to answer your question: if your write speeds are this low with a drive, then it is most likely the chip in the external drive enclosure and most likely not an usb3 interface that you are connecting to your computer. So, I would bet on getting better reads and writes as an internal drive
amazing! here i thought i wouldnt use my 8TB because of the other usb ports being taken up
Agreed. We are already using too many peripherals. hah!
It worked!!!! Thanks a lot!
It worked with a WD Black 12 TB external drive (which is basically a datacenter drive inside of an enclosure) and my computer automatically tried to save some corsair icue files to it but it started making this really concerning sound almost like a poker card hitting a fan or low frequency, low voltage arcing. No smoke or external physical damage though. Going to check out what happens if I just plug it in without the tape.
Clicking sound is no good. That usually indicates the drive might fail soon
@@ALLGEAREDUP what happens if I use it without the tape?
@@lolicon4 the drives find themselves in a loop of initiation mode and your bios won't recognize the drive.
Hey there, this is exactly what I was looking for, you are a lifesaver
Well, it absolutely depends on what you will be doing in raid. Obviously external and internal drives are not rated the same as nas or enterprise drives. If you are writing large date on your raid, then the cache mattes less (for eg. when you use it for file storage of images, videos and so on), a game library should be fine too. If you intend to use the raid for virtualization, then cache becomes increasingly more important. That said, in sich cases you will often create even multiple separate cache drives for your host system to use.
What's the use-case for your raid?
@@ALLGEAREDUP Thanks so much for your answer:)
The storage pool will contain my movies and series that I would like to (somehow) stream through the internet for my friends and family in the future.
Would I be able to keep the info on the hard drive?
Usually yes. The external case generally does contain a controller just to power and adapt the drive from sata to USB.
When installing it internally it is powered by the sata power connector and sata data connector.
I could not think of a reason to lose data if not for mishandling
@@ALLGEAREDUP Once I find my hard drive I will attempt this. I had an issue with my power cord and need to be able to use the hard drive.
@@ALLGEAREDUP Thanks for the info and thanks for the video.
@@ALLGEAREDUP I tried this now that I found the HD. However the problem I have is I can see the HD in all other places except the File folder under "This PC". I might end up trying a diferent method if I can find one.
So, I tried this method with my WD HD and it didn't seem to work. Idk if it's because my HD is an older model or something else but I was just wondering if there could be another thing at play here or if I might just be doing something wrong.
Didn't work for me either
did you apply the tape to the sata pin?
On my WD drives, I also had to set Windows to never shut down the drives, or they would shut down and not "wake" up. The drives would start disconnecting after a few days.
Oh my 🙈
Worked and without tape, but it wants to format... And It is separated in 3 drive parts... And there is tons of data inside, so no for now...
Yeah. The. You better move the data somewhere first =)
@@ALLGEAREDUP what happens if you don't use the tape? Insert it normally, without the "hack".
Awesome, Im thinking this is my issue too? I have installed the power and sata, loaded up disk management and it says; online, MBR and no storage taken but it should be near full. Do I take it out and tape it off or is my issue something different? Product: WD10EADS Thanks in advance
If it shows up then it may be a different file format than ntfs or exfat. You may have to format the drive to use it in your desktop
Is this fix only for new or empty drives? Can this be used when you have existing data to transfer ?
You may have to re-format the drive. Can't say for sure you will get the data off easily. But it may be worth trying if you can't access your data via usb anymore. If you are on Windows and your drive is detected without formating, you're good
Mines heating up is it because I don’t have tape
All drives produce heat
Just checked mine, the metal cover is 3.75" long x 2.75" wide.i wonder if I can use the external drive "as is" with USB, to at least allow me to use this computer. I'm a complete noob to all of this. Though I'm a pretty old man.😂😂😂 I know nothing about this stuff.
I'm having input output errors with my Seagate 8TB external desktop drive. My file and folders are only recognizable for a few seconds when I connect to my PC or laptop, then the folders are listed as empty, and I get the I/O error. Yet in disk mgmt, the drive is listed as having "healthy" status. Is it possible that connecting directly to internal SATA using the tape method will allow me to access files so I can copy them? I'm not looking for a long term fix, just a temporary hack and will discard the drive when I'm done.
Thank you so much this helped a lot🙏🏼
thank you ... question though .. can I use an external hard drive (a mechanical one) , take it out of its shell and install it inside of a laptop?? my laptop is a lenovo t460 with a 256 ssd hard drive .. is it possible?? I thought I may ask before I attempt that myself ;)
Will this work on an HP laptop? Just bought a used computer, GREAT price, but I've learned after weeks of cursing, No HDD means no internal hard drive 😂😂😂. I just bought a WD 1TB external Hard Drive. I'd like to install it in my laptop. Will this work? Just subbed to your channel.
hey, that's quite hard to answer without knowing more. If you bought a 2.5" drive, then you may be able to fit it into a laptop. If your external drive is complying with the 3.5" form factor, then you will be out of luck trying to install it in any laptop.
Some laptops feature other standards for hard drive space tho; like m.2 or it is even soldered onto the mainboard.
Thanks a lot man!!!!Good job.
will this erase the data on the external drive ?
No. If the drive is formated in a file format your computer can read, you should be able to read your data.
@@ALLGEAREDUP i'd be careful. My old WD was "encrypted" with the USB to SATA board
When I unplugged it, and put the drive in my computer, the drive was empty. Plugging it back into the board and running Recuva in the "undeleted files" mode, I got all my stuff back
I took the important stuff, and then just left the drive blank as an internal one and moved my important stuff back
Mine worked great anyways... 6TB without doing anything.
im going to do the same, i cant figure out how to open the hdd enclosure and remove it?
Can I use marker to cover the pin?
most markers still let current pass through. so it must be something to isolate the pin electrically
@@ALLGEAREDUP Thank you.
He look like 'Lester' a character of GTA_5
Is that a good or a bad thing? 😂
@@DanielHagerEdgeWorld He is a Hacker in that game.
@@shauryakumararya9081 then I'll take that 😜
Is this possible to do for a SEAGATE EXPANSION DEKSTOP 8TB drive (for MAC) too?
This is the perfect solution i have been looking for long time now. Works perfect.
I just got 4 x 6tb WD Elements to replace 4x4TB disks and I nearly cried when I saw errors all over the place on bootup. After applying your patch, I can now see the drive in fdisk. I'm just worried that I'm trusting all my data to a small sliver of electricians tape. This will be in a RAID 10 so at least I have some protection and it's all backed up anyway. Thanks for this tip.
It's better to use one external drive for having backups periodically. Rather than using raid
Does this work with seagate hard drives?
is this also a way to do the same with seagate
This is great for recycling and reusing
THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU LEGEND 👊 ✊️
What adapter do I need to get for this?
Thank you good sir.
Totally waste don't do anymore
Hi. I have a 3TB WD My Book. The enclosure died, but the disk is fine. The problem is that the HDD is not recognized by my PC to format it and be able to use it internally. Will this solution you propose work? My HDD it's a WD30EZRS
Usually manufacturers use some 'magic' to allow the partition to use MBR instead of GPT formatting to allow for legacy compatibility for drives larger than 2TB. This makes it illegible to the motherboard without some formatting (that I'm still looking for too)
if it is a western digital, this should work. At least it is worth trying. Luckily nothing bad can happen and the modification is not permanent nor damaging to any components.
@@ALLGEAREDUP why do some videos say cover last three pins, some, and yours, just the third? I am going to attempt today... and a little more knowledge be great
@@shaunallen9337 the outer 3 pins all carry 3.3V signals. It however is up to manufacturers to decide what they do with those. In this case only pin 3 is used to reflect on the spin-up behavior of the wd white drives
@@ALLGEAREDUP thank you
This help alot.Fuck thoose big company
A have a couple of questions for this method. 1: can you use this with the case that it comes in (so pretty much just use it as an external hdd but get the pc to recognize it as an internal driver). 2: in my situation i have a micro pc with only one spot for an hdd/ssd and that is currently occupied by an ssd, i use photoshop a lot and the ssd doesnt have enough space to run it, can i use this method to make my pc to recognize this external hdd as an internal so that i can run some programs. Thanks in advance
hey. So, what you are asking is using and having the benefit of an internal HDD whilst not having the drive installed in your computer?
That won't work unfortunately. You have the option to either connect it to the internal SATA connectors or you will have to go through a USB Connection. If you were to apply the tape and keep the drive in an external case, you won't have any benefit and risk for the controller (in the external case) to not communicate properly with the drive.
@@ALLGEAREDUP Yes thats what i was asking about, thanks for the answer
Actually you can continue using your external ssd via USB while the pc "thinks" it's internal, you just need to format it into NTFS and use a software like WintoUsb and you are good to go! You can even boot windows from it as I did
@@zalayeta007 hey thanks a lot, will be trying that out
This solution worked Perfectly!! Thank you 👏
Huh... Interesting.
Never knew such stuff.
Thanks for the video!
Too much talking
You are welcome to use the timeline jumping around a video. Plus, you are free to watch other channels/videos that are more to your liking =)
It worked . Thank you