portable hard drive NEED ADVICE! (with pictures)

[monopolyex]

hello macrumors community,
i have had a portable hard drive (250gb) this one

pulled the case off and got this:

is it possible i could purchase a computer hard drive and put the usb adapter on it as a cheaper alternative

ps. you can see my macbook in the photo of the adaptor

thanks in advance!

 

[Hellhammer]

A closer pic of the USB adapter would help so I could see is it IDE or SATA but yes, you should be able to do that

 

[monopolyex]

A closer pic of the USB adapter would help so I could see is it IDE or SATA but yes, you should be able to do that

the adaptor is just fits on the golden strips
and what type of Hard drive would i need to get?

 

[Lokrado]

you would need to get a 2.5" SATA HDD, basically a standard laptop drive.
no need to go for a high rpm one or anything, the USB interface limits your transfer speed to ~25MB/s anyway.

 

[TheBritishBloke]

Looks like it's a SATA hard drive. But I'd still get a proper enclosure to protect the drive.