HDD-external-to-internal speed problems

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Roy_Don

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Mar 1, 2014
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Hello, this is my first post. I could not find the answer to my question by searching the forums so I will go ahead and ask. I have a WD 1TB mybook external hard drive and I have taken the USB adapter and mounting brackets off to convert it to an internal drive. This will give me 2.5 TB total on the 2 drives. I want to have Open BSD and Ubuntu Linux as dual boots on one drive and Windows 7 for games on the other drive. I have a few questions;

1. Will this second HD likely cause over heating problems or would this be OK without upgrading the cooling system? I have a Gateway FX 6860 with a radeon 6750 w/o a fan, and the power supply, CPU, and case fans only.

2.My second question is, I ended up formatting the first windows drive and I deleted the MBR 100 MB partition. Windows now will not install via the recovery partition. What do I do? Make a new MBR? Shouldn't windows do this on it's own? The drive no longer has the NTFS due to the formatting so I think this is the problem.

3. My final question: Are there any known reasons not to convert an external to internal? I don't know why but while installing Ubuntu and the system and driver updates it took 30 min for a 31 MB update. What could be killing the speed or is this normal for an external to internal conversion?
 
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unknownofprob
I would just leave it as your internal drive, But it is much better if you get a proper internal HDD, that is much faster then using your converted drive.
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unknownofprob

unknownofprob

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1) the HDD's won't cause a heating problem

2) You can reformat the HDD if you re-install windows, just insert the disk, select your HDD and it will make you format the drive in order to install.

3) Don't convert External to internal, both are different altogether, External is USB/2.0/3.0 and Internal is SATA III/II 6GB/s or 3GB/s. I wouldn't have done this but gone for an internal drive to start with, you may be using a SATA connection that is really slow (3GB/s) compared to modern day SATA III 6GB/s. For what you've done, that is quite normal as internal drives are much faster then external, therefore the external drive will be quite slow.
 
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Roy_Don

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Well once I removed everything from the HD it was identical to my internal. I have it hooked into the same SATA cables as my internal. They are sharing both the same power and data cables. Can you explain to me how it is limited in speed and if this whole endevour is even practical? Is there anyway to change the method of data transfer? They are both 7200 RPM btw.
 
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unknownofprob

unknownofprob

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if you wanted something super quick, you can get a SSD, then you'll be laughing at any HDD afloat, even the 10000RPM and even 15000RPM drives. But they are expensive and you get much less space for the extra cost. 120GB Samsung SSD is around $100, Comapred to a 1TB 7200RPM drive is $70.
 
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Roy_Don

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I had no plans to upgrade honestly. My standard 1.5 TB was enough and had good speed. I just happened to accidently break the case and USB port after it fell on the floor. Since it was broke I went ahead and converted it. I do plan to get a solid state drive one day when I have more money to spare. What is surprising to me though is how slow the external is. I think maybe it could have been damaged in the fall because this is running way too slow.

I still don't understand how the HD would go so slow wih the USB adapter now off, it has only the SATA port for the data cable. Why am I not getting SATA transfer speeds?
 
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Roy_Don

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I just checked and apparently the drive I have, WD caviar green, is notorious for being slow. The "green" technology keeps it at 5400 RPM at all times but they claim it changes speed when needed. What a load of crap. anyway that would explain it I guess. Thanks again.
 
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