Turning old MacBook Internal HD into External HD

[DarumaBlue]

I have 2 problems.

First, my old 2007 MacBook kicked the bucket today. The machine won't even power on, and I checked the battery and power cable. I suspect it's the logic board. Whatever the cause, I believe my HD still works. I'd like to do two things -

First, while I do keep backups, I had not backed up my hard drive in a week, and lost some valuable PDFs. Is there a way to access my old internal HD on my new MacBook Air by enclosing it in a case somehow and getting to it by USB?

Second, once I'm done with that, can the same process essentially make a new external backup disk for me to use?

Cheers

 

[tinybruk]

Buy an external sata 2.5 inch enclosure

Just get an external sata 2.5 inch enclosure with Firewire and its own power supply.

then you can boot off it in target disk mode.

 

[DarumaBlue]

Is the firewire connection strictly necessary, or can I plug it into a USB port?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Is the firewire connection strictly necessary, or can I plug it into a USB port?

No, but it is faster. But as USB enclosures are much cheaper (from 10€ up), USB might suffice your needs.

Btw, you don't need an external power supply for 2.5" HDD enclosures, as USB and Firewire provide enough power to spin the HDDs.

 

[tinybruk]

true

I was thinking about about transfer rate really. the power suggestion was because I have experienced some issues before with external drives requiring more power than usb can supply so i usually err on the side of self powered just in case..