Vista - Using internal 300GB HDD as an external HDD for my laptop.?

Hi all, hope everyone is doing good?

Basically, I have a custom built pc back in the UK which I will be taking apart soon, as Im selling up everything I have back in the UK. (Moved to Finland last year from UK).

I want to keep my internal 300GB HDD from my custom built PC, and know I can do this, and also know what case I'm going for too, although it will be powered independently, with its own psu rather than USB powered.

Now my question is to you kind people, is, what exactly do I have to do before I can dismantle my custom built PC, and start using the 300GB HDD as an external HDD with my laptop.?

Im sure its not as simple as it sounds.? Just unplug, and fit to external case/housing(which comes with leads etc), and then use with laptop.?

Do I need to install anything on this drive so that everything stored on it can be accessible?

Also, not sure whats installed on there all together right now, although theres loads of photos, and files I need for work etc. My concerns are that some, if not all of the files used from the OS from my custom built pc are in there, which I do not need.

I will of course power up the pc to double check all files etc prior to dismantling, I just need some advice on what is the right way in going about this? The last thing I want to do is remove the 300GB HDD, then then bring it to Finland, and not being able to access anything due to some problems which could of been prevented back in the UK.

The OS on my PC is XP Professional. The OS on my laptop is Vista Business.

Any help, advice, or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Micky

GSi-R wrote:

See comments inline:
Nothing. Put the 300GB drive in the external case and attach it to the
laptop's USB port. The drive will be seen as a removable drive.
No. It is possible that you'll need to take ownership of the files but
probably it will be seamless. After you get it set up, if you get "access
denied" errors then just put "Take ownership" into Vista's Help (or post
back here).
Once you have the drive connected to your laptop, you can simply delete all
the operating system files and keep your data. Make sure you take the
Favorites, email (if applicable), etc.


Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

It is pretty much as simple as it sounds. You do just install it into that
case, plug it in, and your OS will see it as a removable drive. If your
Vista files are protected, you will have to take ownership of those file to
access them, but that is another simple process. And you can just erase your
old OS files from the removable drive and still have access to your other
files.

--
Dustin Harper
dharper@xxxxxx
http://www.VistaRIP.com | Vista Resource & Information Page


"GSi-R" <GSi-R.34ivl1@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:GSi-R.34ivl1@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...

Thanks for your reassuring help. Excellent.

Ok, update. Before i remove this 300gb drive, i want to transfer the driver contents, well, the os etc at least, and then get the pc to boot from the smaller HDD.

I tried just swapping the smaller drive in place of the 300gb, including transferring the bridge connector on the pins, but upon switching the pc on, its asking for the boot floppy, it wont boot, even though i have copied all files, from C:

What am i doing wrong.?

Any help appreciated