Converting external to internal

[Mr. Bojangles]

Hi, I've looked all around but i haven't been able to find a solution to my  particular problem.....

My now quite old 1TB external (Fantom Drives from at least 4 years back) has met its final demise from a falling speaker that managed to smash the power cord and cause the drive to no longer power up. I tore the casing open in hopes of salvaging the hard drive and found 2 separate drives. I did happen to find a post on another website with a similar issue and they mentioned that they were only able to salvage files from one drive since the other one was lacking the filesystem.

So my question is... would my HD's work if i stuck them in my case or would I only have access to one?

Any advice or suggestions are welcome, thanks

[patio]

What type of connectors are on this drive ? ?
Any jumpers ? ?

If IDE jumper it at slave and see Here...

[OpenSource]

Yes they would work.  Getting your data off is another issue since they were probably raided and the chip not powering up would have broken that raid.

[patio]

I didn't see RAID mentioned anywhere...
Lets wait for a reply.

[OpenSource]

I didn't see RAID mentioned anywhere...
Lets wait for a reply.

It has to be mentioned?

So an external 4 year old 1TB unit with multiple HDD's wouldn't have to have a raid activated in order to recognize a singular drive?  You think that an external drive would recognize, say E: and F: at 500GB a piece?  I'm just trying to understand your logic that's all.

[BC_Programmer]

It has to be mentioned?

So an external 4 year old 1TB unit with multiple HDD's wouldn't have to have a raid activated in order to recognize a singular drive?  You think that an external drive would recognize, say E: and F: at 500GB a piece?  I'm just trying to understand your logic that's all.

Usually external enclosures with multiple internal drives won't use a published "RAID" standard for striping, instead using proprietary/custom formats. That would explain the posting the OP notes from another page, where using one drive allowed them to get about half their files, but all the files on the other drive were gone/unaccessible. Most non-redundant RAID scenarios are of the "all or nothing" type; either you have all the disks in working order and all the data, or you have nothing. You cannot, to my understanding, simply plop in the first drive from a RAID set and have a perfectly valid File system. Therefore, it stands to reason that since it worked with the external drive for that particular user on the other site, that the external circuitry uses a simpler approach that somehow merges two separate filesystems into one, rather then having one filesystem extend across several Disks (as in RAID0).

And of course, it could very well have exposed the two disks as separate drives... Although I can't say I think that is very likely.

[OpenSource]

Usually external enclosures with multiple internal drives won't use a published "RAID" standard for striping, instead using proprietary/custom formats. That would explain the posting the OP notes from another page, where using one drive allowed them to get about half their files, but all the files on the other drive were gone/unaccessible. Most non-redundant RAID scenarios are of the "all or nothing" type; either you have all the disks in working order and all the data, or you have nothing. You cannot, to my understanding, simply plop in the first drive from a RAID set and have a perfectly valid File system. Therefore, it stands to reason that since it worked with the external drive for that particular user on the other site, that the external circuitry uses a simpler approach that somehow merges two separate filesystems into one, rather then having one filesystem extend across several Disks (as in RAID0).

And of course, it could very well have exposed the two disks as separate drives... Although I can't say I think that is very likely.

exactly my point, and since he can't power the ROM that controlls that RAID then it would be broken.

[BC_Programmer]

exactly my point, and since he can't power the ROM that controlls that RAID then it would be broken.

Technically it's not really RAID (or, more precisely, it fits the acronym of RAID but doesn't use a published RAID standard)... that may be where some of the confusion in this topic has resulted.

One possible way to get it working, however, would be to either get a new power cord or find another external drive of the same model; in the former you'd be able to simply use the power cord (assuming that is all that was damaged), and in the latter you could swap the two drives in the "new" external for those from the "old" one.

The first option would be difficult, especially if the adapter is some freaky weird proprietary random thing. laptops have lately been standardizing but I don't think the same has occured with externals. of course, if you get another of the same kind you would probably get a power cord with it, so you could try the first option even with the second.

Not sure about the second option, since being older I don't know if one would be able to find a new unit; a used one would work, of course, for either recovery option.

[OpenSource]

Technically it's not really RAID (or, more precisely, it fits the acronym of RAID but doesn't use a published RAID standard)

Ok, now you're just nit-picking.  The concept is the same.

[BC_Programmer]

Ok, now you're just nit-picking.

No. I'm clarifying.