Internal to External Hard drive

Ok, so a while back my laptop kicked the bucket. I took out its 2.5″ hd and put it into an external case. Then hooked it up through usb and use it as an external hd now. I was wondering, since I need more storage space and external hard drives are expensive. Can I do the same thing with a 3.5″ internal hard drive for PC’s? This way I could buy a 500gb for cheap, get an external case and just hook it up as an external.
Answer #1
You might be able to do that if your laptop can boot from USB.
Answer #2
Yes you can do that…
Actually you should find that hard drives complete with case will cost you about the same….maybe about $20 more than the hard drive by itself
Answer #3
internal (less probs)
Answer #4
I have 2 external drives. The first is a Maxtor II and the second is an old drive I put in an external USB case (around $35 at the time). The difference between the two is that the Maxtor enclosure is smart enough to power-down the drive after 30 minutes of inactivity, whilst the other is continually spinning (I leave my machine on 24/7) and gets pretty hot in warm weather.
Answer #5
Yeah, so then a 3.5″ internal in an external case is the same case as me taking my laptops 2.5″ internal and putting it into an external case.. ? A 500gb internal HD is only like $130 and a 3.5″ case is about $20. I dont think I could find an external hard drive with 500gb for 150..