Can an external hard drive be taken out and put internal?

spoonhead · 01-04-2008, 02:32 PM

The hard drive is a Maxtor OneTouch III USB 2.0. The model number is T01H500.

I know a guy who accidentally dropped his and now windows can't recognize it. I'm guessing some connection from the HDD to the USB cable broke, ripped, or got torn. I was wondering if this type of hard drive can be taken apart and if its just a regular HDD inside? Basically he has some stuff on here that needs to be salvaged pretty badly and i wanted to try and help

Thanks guys,

vump

philb7 · 01-04-2008, 09:01 PM

So long as it is not a small laptop drive inside it, it should be a conventional drive inside. You say that it was dropped so it is more likely that the HD was damaged as its parts are very sensitive. The arm may have shifted and either does not get close enough to read or is in physical contact with the platter and getting beat up. The only way to know is to plug it (HD) into the PC and test it. If it makes a lot of noise junk it. Good luck.

01-04-2008, 02:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
spoonhead Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1 OS: vista	Can an external hard drive be taken out and put internal? The hard drive is a Maxtor OneTouch III USB 2.0. The model number is T01H500. I know a guy who accidentally dropped his and now windows can't recognize it. I'm guessing some connection from the HDD to the USB cable broke, ripped, or got torn. I was wondering if this type of hard drive can be taken apart and if its just a regular HDD inside? Basically he has some stuff on here that needs to be salvaged pretty badly and i wanted to try and help Thanks guys, vump

01-04-2008, 09:01 PM	#2 (permalink)
philb7 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 70 OS: WIN XP SP2	Re: Can an external hard drive be taken out and put internal? So long as it is not a small laptop drive inside it, it should be a conventional drive inside. You say that it was dropped so it is more likely that the HD was damaged as its parts are very sensitive. The arm may have shifted and either does not get close enough to read or is in physical contact with the platter and getting beat up. The only way to know is to plug it (HD) into the PC and test it. If it makes a lot of noise junk it. Good luck.