Expansion Portable STEA1500400 (1.5 TB hard drive) Model: SRD0NF1
Both of these drives are by Seagate. The are 2.5" hard drives. They do not require external power sources.
I want to use these as internal as I really have no need for them as external drives at this time. I also have been unable to sell them even at a reasonable price and they are brand new.
So how easy is it to get this done? Is it just a matter of taking the casing off or is there more to it?
Mostly yes... It's usually a 2,5" mechanical drive inside with SATA to USB adapter and some vibration pads, eventually a protective magnetic film or something...
If those drives have soldered SATA to USB adapter inside, if you have an extra USB3.0 header inside your motherboard, you can buy an adapter that converts it to two female USB ports and you're done.
As for extra USB 3.0 headers inside the motherboards ...
I have a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 (I am trying to figure out what revision it is and I am thinking I might have to open up the PC to find out. I see that later revision supported 4 USB 3.0 ports.)
The other motherboard is Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 ....
and it says it supports USB 3.0.
Now to be honest I don't understand what a USB 3.0 header on the motherboard does. Is it what allows a USB 3.0 device to connect directly to the motherboard? I am assuming yes. I just never heard the term header so I need it explained to me.
I am 100% sure I have never used one of these before. Are these ever included with motherboards? I may have had one but not known what to do with it. LOL!
No, they don't come with motherboards. The big plug does come with cases that support USB 3.0 though. It connects the USB3 ports on the front panel with the motherboard.
The Antec has USB 3.0 and the Cooler Master doesn't have it indeed.
Still, I wouldn't worry too much about the case features right now. The first thing to do is to open up the external drive enclosures and see what the HDDs inside them look like. If they have regular SATA connectors, you can just plug them in like you would any other HDD.
External drives are cheaper then internal ones. I had a laptop die on me a few years back, and I went and bought an external drive. I pulled the HDD off it and put it in the laptop. It is pretty easy. There should be a flat plate that the drive itself is screwed to. Might be an adapter on the sata plug but it should just pull off easily. Some side mounting pins may be screwed into the drive as well which may have to come off. Good Luck.
