I threw in a 2 TB western digital HDD into my ps4 and put the 1TB that came with ps4 into a Inateck 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DW374W4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 even at 3 TB I ran out of space lol setting it up is pretty easy I believe all I did was plug it in.
I've never had a problem with USB for backups. I use one of these with an SSD.
It uses USB A on both ends. Those USB 3 micro B cables suck.
I tried it with this and a 64Gb SSD. Kept on disconnecting. Eventually returned the enclosure but not tried a different one yet. May have something to do with the on/ off switch on this one, perhaps points to some built in power management.
Went for this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DW374W4 however, it randomly disconnected after being in use for about 30 minutes. Had to remove it and re-plug to get it working again. Good news is the Shield just carried on regardless, although not much stored on the drive at the time. Not validated why yet, if it's the enclosure or the fact the SSD is over a year old and maybe not in great condition. If I figure it out I'll update this post for posterity.
If you aren't tech savvy don't worry about securely erasing the HDD. Just remove it and then sell it.
Afterwards if you want to recover the data--and the HDD isn't broken--you could then buy something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Enclosure-Tool-free-Installation-Compatible/dp/B00DW374W4 to put the HDD in and use as an external HDD.
There shouldn't be much of a price difference selling it with or without the HDD. But DO NOT sell it with the HDD. You run the risk of someone lifting any data you had on it.
The 32/64GB drives probably provide the best combination of value and portability. As always, just a few things to keep in mind when it comes to these compact flash drives:
- With any lengthy transfers, they will heat up quickly. When they get warm, write speeds will suffer (expect a range of 5-40 MB/s), and you risk your data being corrupted. It's probably best to avoid the 128/256GB drive because they would take ages to fill up anyways. Keep in mind that you can always buy a 128/256 GB SSD for roughly the same price as these flash drives and use them externally with a $10 enclosure on Amazon, such as this: https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Enclosure-External-Tool-free-FE2001/dp/B00DW374W4
- This particular drive has a plastic case, which might crack after a while if you test its pullout game often.
- Don't use these as a primary backup storage solution. They are perfectly fine for storing an OS, media, documents, random files for school, etc., but don't expect them to do any heavy lifting after a year or two.
External case as in am empty drive enclosure with a USB port on it (USB 3 for best speed). You put the drive inside, then when you find another Mac, shut down the Mac, plug the drive into the Mac's USB port, and start up the Mac with the Option key held down. That will bring up a list of all connected bootable drives. You can select your drive and you should be able to boot up from it.
Examples:
I was under the impression the laptop still ran when it was plugged in but not charging, is that correct? For your HDD, you need to pul it out and see what type it is. Chances are its a SATA port which is still the standard today. Look for an external enclosure to put your old HDD in and you can access the whole thing to get what you want off it. What budget do you have for a new laptop? I'd shy away from Newegg when purchasing because their CS seems to change like the weather. I'd use their website to shop because they have a good filter and sort set up then when you find one you like look for it on Amazon. That way if it arrives broken you know it won't be a hassle.
1) Put El Capitan on a USB flash drive
2) Replace your HDD with the SSD
3) Boot up and press alt to select the USB. Then install El Capitan
4) Put your HDD in a case like this and copy all the data you need to your new SSD
Inateck 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure External Hard Drive Case with USB 3.0 Cable for 9.5mm 7mm 2.5" SATA HDD and SSD, Tool-free (FE2001) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DW374W4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_kDC4BbVTQN9YH
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Don't get 180GB or 128GB please. Both of them are M.2. SATA and except for their size, there is no real speed benefit with them. Their speeds will be close to your 2.5" SSD, only.
So, pay $50 more, get the 256GB M.2 PCIe NVME SSD + Mandatory 1TB HDD and swap the HDD with your 2.5" SDD.
Get a USB 3.0 2.5" SATA enclosure for your HDD for ~10 bucks from places like Microcenter, Newegg or Amazon and make your internal 2.5" HDD into a portable HDD for backup or whatever.
It comes handy, believe me.
Links for Enclosures:
I have the above Inateck one since 2012, No problems so far. And I love it.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/486119/25_SATA_to_High-Speed_USB_30_External_Hard_Drive_Enclosure
I had to send my laptop out for repairs recently used this.
You can hook it to another computer and just drag and drop files to it.
For cheap enclosures that do the job, I've got 3 of these... no problems and USB 3.0
I also only use Samsung EVO's. They go on sale pretty often, and are super reliable. 250GB is only $80 on Amazon right now. 500GB is usually about $150 and totally worth it for a PC game/boot drive.
You know the external hard drives you can buy? Those are basically just a regular internal 2.5" HDD inside of a case. You can get the cases very inexpensively and put your old HDD from your old computer in it and then run the setup assistant to copy everything over.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DW374W4/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_aAxNvb733N8TH
Make sure your computer is compatible with USB 3.0. Also, be sure to format the hard drive (on Mac it is the disk utility).
No problem at all!