saw some people do this
my laptops hdd is practically in deathbed
what are the complications if i need to use it for rendering and gaming and stuffs?
I'm guessing this is more of a /g/ thing, but what are you asking? Do you want to run/boot off of an external USB drive? it's possible, just not as fast. If you want to replace your internal 2.5 inch HDD with the 2.5 inch HDD inside the USB enclosure, that will probably work and also be faster.
Easy fix.
Buy a small size external hard drive with the same or larger capacity as your current drive.
Download clonezilla and read the instructions.
Clone your current hard drive to the external. using clonezilla.
Open the casing on the external hdd. Open the bottom of you laptop.
Swap the hard drives.
Close everything.
Push power.
If it dosent work then swap back your old hdd and re-read the clonezilla instructions.
I just swapped an old 100gb hdd to a 250gb ssd so i could upgrade to windows 10.
all portable hdd come like this now (usb is directly soldered to the hdd board). guess they got tired of people swapping out the drives.
even the desktop ones are like that now
>>900897
Just make sure it's not a slow ass 5200 RPM drive. They use those sometimes in external USB enclosures because it's fast enough for USB. You can often find 7200 RPM external drives for cheap, as cheap as the bare drive. Just read the amazon reviews or whatever to see what the speed is.
I had bought some bare internal drives before, then saw some sale on a USB one that had the exact same drive inside, and it was cheaper. I guess the logistics just work out that way sometimes.
>>900904
its cheaper to make one board for the hdd than to make 2 separate ones
There is enough demand for external drives to make it worth it too
>>900922
I don't think he was disagreeing with you. I think he was saying that the reason probably isn't to stop people from swaping, but because it's cheaper since there are fewer parts, as externals are so popular now.
>>900885
Buy a new SATA drive with at least the capacity of your internal drive. Buy or borrow a SATA to USB adapter*. Plug new drive into USB port and clone internal drive to new drive. When done, swap drives and you're done.
*These things are handy if you need to do any drive or PC rescue/repair. They adapt SATA/PATA/IDE internal drives to USB and provide power.
>>901049
This will not actually work with OSX or Windows Vista or later, because GPT puts a partition table at the start and the end of the disk, gives each disk a GUID that's supposed to be GU, and encodes the length of the disk in the partition table. OSX, especially, blows chunks if you just clone the drive.
You need to use a GPT-aware tool to set the drive up as a new drive and copy the partitions. Ideally you want to give each copy a different UUID from its clone, so that your OS won't get confused if both drives are present at the same time.
Gparted is good. dd is not good.
>>901056
Why can't something make a damn bit by bit copy that you can throw into your computer like nothing ever happened?
So frustrating.
>>901315
There is.
Macrium reflect. Lrn2.
>>901315
You used to be able to do that, until GPT came along. If you've got an XP machine with a small drive, you'll be fine and dandy bitcopying it.
>>901462
You can't just redefine the phrase "bit copy". If it's massaging the partition table and chainging the filesystem UUIDs, it's not "bit copying" the drive.
Anyway, rather than some spyware no-one's ever heard of, you should be using GParted (as was already mentioned further up). It's free, it's been around for over a decade, it has a live image, and it works just fine.
>>901473
> If it's massaging the partition table and chainging the filesystem UUIDs, it's not "bit copying" the drive.
> if
Cool, so now we've established that you haven't actually used it, lets address the rest of your post.
> Anyway, rather than some spyware no-one's ever heard of.
Says you. Once you have read a review or two (or, ya know, used it) and learned what it actually is you might be in a better position to comment on it. Feel free to dig up some fsecure or other reports on it to back your baseless claims by the way.
> you should be using GParted (as was already mentioned further up).
again with the opinions..
> It's free
Check.
> it's been around for over a decade.
Only 9 years for Reflect, oh well.
> it has a live image.
Check
> and it works just fine.
Check.
...so yeah, prolly best to avoid talking about shit you demonstrably have no idea about, tends to make you look kind of stupid. be sure to download it and have a look.
>>901484
>if
Well if it isn't, then the computer won't fucking boot, so let's assume it is, huh?
>>901056
>This will not actually work with OSX or Windows Vista or later
Which is why I used the generic term 'clone'. One has to do some research and find the appropriate tool for their O/S. But most of these tools work just fine mounting the new internal disk as an external USB type (via an adapter) and doing their stuff. This obviates having to dick around with disassembling/unsoldering an actual external drive.
>>901473
>>901462
>>901459
>>901329
>>901315
Uhhh, I might be late for the party here, but why not good ol' "dd"? Just boot up some Linux live-CD (RescueCD is always good to keep around anyway), and "dd if=<raw device> of=<new raw device>" the entire thing. It's a block-by-block direct copy and, if I recall correctly, should also copy the MBR etc..
Or at least, that's how I used to do it a couple years ago when I was still using Linux daily. I do lots of Windows-based games so I rarely ever dual boot anymore.
>>901556
Because if you dd a GPT-partitioned drive, you end up with one partition table at the front where it belongs, another partition table in the middle where it doesn't belong, an incorrect disk-length field in your partition tables, and universally-unique partition identifiers that are no-longer universally-unique.
If you have both disks plugged in and boot, it's a crapshoot which copies of each partition you'll actually end up mounting.
If you ask OSX to resize your partition and fill the disk, it will instead silently corrupt it.
If you dd a non-4k-aligned image over a 4k disk, you'll half the performance, because every cluster now spans two sectors.
You can't dd a GPT disk; you need to use something that understands GPT.
>>901578
Thanks, I wasn't aware of that.
I need to catch up, any good article that covers all of the above?
>>901590
Bumping for this, I would also like to know.
>>901578
>both disks plugged in and boot
been there done that. windows 7 boots very slowly into an extra-crippled safe mode then dies screaming with a "catastrophic failure" error. either disk on it's own boots fine though.
>>902124
what I learned the bloody hard way was not to install 7 on a drive where the first partitioned is encrypted. fucker runs it over with some temp/boot FS even if it's not installed to the first partition. god fucking damnit lost some good porn to that fuckup.
>>902488
You did the whole plausibly-deniable encryption thing, didn't you.
If the NSA can't discern whether there's data there or not, neither can Windows setup.
Next time use Bitlocker.
>>902490
>Next time use Bitlocker
I would laugh but secure opensource options are scarce now.
rip truecrypt, you did well while you could.
>>902492
What is it's replacement?
>>902492
Bitlocker integrates with your TPM, giving you attested boot.
This is a big deal, because if you don't have attested boot, anyone with physical access can replace your bootloader with one that boots the machine, waits for you to enter your password, and then emails it to them.
>>902520
>I'll take my chances with my maid rather than with Microsoft
Your priorities sound kinda weird. Do you actually have anything which would interest anyone else than your mom and maybe the local cops?
>>902537
>you actually have anything which would interest anyone
Whether or not I'm "interesting" enough has nothing to do with deciding whether or not I should protect my privacy. Do you really think your house is interesting enough to be broken into that you bother to lock the front door? Do you think your kids are interesting enough for a pedophile to use their online personal details and track them down because he's taken a shine to them?
Nah, I might only assume I can trust my maid, but I *know* better than to trust Microsoft.
>>902541
That wasn't the point.
You're suggesting that it makes sense to block one single point of entry for one of the world's most capable information thieves, while giving everyone else better chances of gaining access.
This "everyone else" happens to include the NSA as well, this time with other methods of access. Like bribing your minimum wage maid. Or just sniffing your net traffic, which is what they're already doing.
