Hello all, i have a laptop that is dead and am thinking of repurposing the 320GB HDD inside of it. Would it be best to use it as actual storage on top of my 1TB or use it as a external drive?
Actual storage inside of the laptop?
It all depends. If you need to move large amounts of storage around between computers, or need a backup drive, or want to install plenty of OS's on different computers, get an enclosure.
If you only have one computer, sure, keep it in.
All of this assumes there is a second drive bay inside of the laptop.
Depends on what you need. Here's a $12 external 3.0 cage: http://goo.gl/0iXYxt. I'd personally go this route since having 320gb in a mobile format could help out; and since it's usb 3.0 you won't be losing any speed when you use it. I have one of these and I find it really useful.