Convert External WD My Passport Ultra to Internal Drive

[Brandon_Byrnes]

Does anyone know if it can be done with this model. I saw a YouTube video and a guy did it with and older one but it turns out it had the USB interface on the actual drive, so no SATA connector on the drive and he ended up wasting $80 since he couldn’t use it anymore. The S/N is WXE1A9679VHY and it’s the metal edition so that’s another reason i wanna be extra sure since I’ll have to pry off the metal case.

[veeg]

Hello

I don’t see why you can’t use it with the case on and mount inside the pc, using some sturdy tape or bracket. Assuming you have an inside port to connect it,or maybe run an long usb cable.

[Rustys]

Most external HDD have the USB built onto the drive. Even the circuit boards for the external HDDs are made specifically for external use only from what I have been reading.

[Brandon_Byrnes]

Hello

I don’t see why you can’t use it with the case on and mount inside the pc, using some sturdy tape or bracket. Assuming you have an inside port to connect it,or maybe run an long usb cable.

I was thinking thinking SATA would offer faster transfer speeds than USB 3.0, or is that not really true since it’s still a mechanical drive which is only going to transfer at the speed it can spin?

[Brandon_Byrnes]

Most external HDD have the USB built onto the drive. Even the circuit boards for the external HDDs are made specifically for external use only from what I have been reading.

Yeah I have a couple 2.5" drives that I put in external HDD cases and they all seem to be longer then the real external drives that I have. So I’m thinking you are probably right. Thats the reason why I didn’t want to crack it open, after comparing it to my converted externals and thinking there wasn’t any room in the case for a SATA to USB board.

[Bruce]

my 2 cents…

I never seen an external drive, 2.5 or 3.5", IDE or SATA, that I wasn’t able to remove from its external case and install internally.
yes, more than 50% of the time, the case was destroyed beyond future use, but the drives were always usable.
some did have adapters on them that converted the standard SATA data and power ports to suit whatever model case they came out of.

but with new drives, SSD and HDD, being so cheap, you have to ask yourself ‘why bother’. leave it external as is for a backup and buy a new drive.

[Rustys]

@Bruce refer to the 3:10 minutes position and it was created in 2015 as you can see that some manufactures are going away from that.

[MEDIA=youtube]DBenRlPzb_s[/MEDIA]

[Bruce]

ouch - so at 3:24 that USB3 plug looks actually soldered onto the drives circuit board.
they used to have that pull off and expose the normal SATA connectors.

[Rustys]

@Brandon Byrnes is there anything else

[Brandon_Byrnes]

ouch - so at 3:24 that USB3 plug looks actually soldered onto the drives circuit board.
they used to have that pull off and expose the normal SATA connectors.

yeah thats the video I watched, so it looks like maybe with modern external drives or at least certain manufactureres they attach the usb port directly to the driove and don’t even include the sata connector.

[Rustys]

That is correct you would be better off buying an internal drive.

Do you consider this solved