Accessing Seagate drive

[BazEP]

Howdy
I'm hoping someone can help.

To cut a long story short, i have liberated a seagate 1tb Sata drive and am wondering if I might be able to connect it to my MBP and use it as an external back up drive (essentially clear and format it and access it via USB 3 if possible). I have had a look around but cant see anything clear on what I need to consider or do.

Any suggestions?

cheers

 

[skorpien]

What you'll need is an external enclosure. I'm assuming it's a 3.5" drive? If so, a 3.5" external SATA enclosure with USB 3.0 connectivity can be purchased and the drive installed inside. If it's a 2.5" drive, you'll need a 2.5" enclosure instead, but its the same procedure.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392036
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182276

Just two examples of what you can use.

 

[BazEP]

ok, thanks. what is in the enclosure - is it just a housing with some basic connections and a power connector in it?

 

[opinio]

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/FWU3ES2HDK/

This sort of dock may be easier.

Just plug in the power plus USB cable and slot the drive in (small or large drive) and turn it on.

Not screws, etc

It is good to have as a back up device for any raw drives you come across.

Alternately you can use it permanently as a USB drive.

It also has esata and firewire in the 'quad interface' as connection options instead of USB 3.0

You can also get just the USB 3.0 interface version.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3S3HD/

 

[Fishrrman]

The most versatile solution is to get a USB/SATA docking station. They cost around $25-30, and make it easy to mount and use an older drive. If you have more than one drive, swapping drives becomes _easy_. You can boot from these just as you would an "external" drive (mounted in an external enclosure).

To see what's available, go to amazon.com (NFI) and enter into the search box:
"USB SATA dock"
This will bring up many hits.

If you have a Mac that is equipped with USB3, be sure to get a USB3 capable dock…