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How to setup a HDD from another pc as a secondary drive but not internally

Simone_ltt
Go to solution Solved by mariushm,

If you use a Sata to usb adapter cable , or a external hdd cage / bay / whatever it's called - it will be detected as additional drive when you plug the usb cable in. 

If you leave it plugged in and turn off your pc and then turn on the pc, the pc MAY try to boot from the external usb device first, depending on how things are configured in bios. 

 

Press DEL or F2 or F10 or whatever when you turn on the pc and simply go to boot order  or boot priority and set your internal hard drive as the first device to boot from. 

Hey i have a HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF with a 6000 rpm segate barracuda HDD.  
Recenly i took out my SATA HDD from another desktop which is dead now, so no use of the HDD. I want to use that HDD as my secondary drive for my HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF , but i only have one SATA connection inside my HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF  which is already occupied. 
IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN USE THE HDD FROM THE DEAD PC AS MY SECONDARY DRIVE BUT WITHOUT FORMATIING IT & NOT USING IT AS  A INTERNAL DRIVE ??

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2 minutes ago, Abhirupam Sarmah said:

Hey i have a HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF with a 6000 rpm segate barracuda HDD.  
Recenly i took out my SATA HDD from another desktop which is dead now, so no use of the HDD. I want to use that HDD as my secondary drive for my HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF , but i only have one SATA connection inside my HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF  which is already occupied. 
IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN USE THE HDD FROM THE DEAD PC AS MY SECONDARY DRIVE BUT WITHOUT FORMATIING IT & NOT USING IT AS  A INTERNAL DRIVE ??

Sata to USB cable from Amazon 

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1 minute ago, Abhirupam Sarmah said:

ok @doomsriker But my drive also has windows installed and has 3 partitions. So will it work ??

 

The PC might (I doubt it) try to boot into windows off the old drive and if it does you should be able to fix it in the bios by changing your boot priority settings. 

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@doomsriker i dont know how to change bios settings . Can you help me with that ??

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If you use a Sata to usb adapter cable , or a external hdd cage / bay / whatever it's called - it will be detected as additional drive when you plug the usb cable in. 

If you leave it plugged in and turn off your pc and then turn on the pc, the pc MAY try to boot from the external usb device first, depending on how things are configured in bios. 

 

Press DEL or F2 or F10 or whatever when you turn on the pc and simply go to boot order  or boot priority and set your internal hard drive as the first device to boot from. 

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@mariushm  I have an already installed win 7 there so if it boots there will there be any problem??
In that case will i  get  my internal HDD as an secondary drive shown?? 

5 hours ago, mariushm said:

If you leave it plugged in and turn off your pc and then turn on the pc, the pc MAY try to boot from the external usb device first, depending on how things are configured in bios. 

 

also @mariushm Can you please provide me with an video for the boot menu changes :)

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5 hours ago, Abhirupam Sarmah said:

Hey i have a HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF with a 6000 rpm segate barracuda HDD.  
Recenly i took out my SATA HDD from another desktop which is dead now, so no use of the HDD. I want to use that HDD as my secondary drive for my HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF , but i only have one SATA connection inside my HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF  which is already occupied. 
IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN USE THE HDD FROM THE DEAD PC AS MY SECONDARY DRIVE BUT WITHOUT FORMATIING IT & NOT USING IT AS  A INTERNAL DRIVE ??

 

5 hours ago, mariushm said:

If you use a Sata to usb adapter cable , or a external hdd cage / bay / whatever it's called - it will be detected as additional drive when you plug the usb cable in. 

If you leave it plugged in and turn off your pc and then turn on the pc, the pc MAY try to boot from the external usb device first, depending on how things are configured in bios. 

 

Press DEL or F2 or F10 or whatever when you turn on the pc and simply go to boot order  or boot priority and set your internal hard drive as the first device to boot from. 

@Fasauceome Can you give me through instruction of " HOW TO CHANGE THE BIOS SETTINGS SO THAT IT BOOTS FROM INTERNAL HDD RATHER THAN EXTERNAL HDD WHICH HAS AN WINDOWS INSTALLED IN IT"

MY PC IS HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF

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12 minutes ago, Abhirupam Sarmah said:

 

@Fasauceome Can you give me through instruction of " HOW TO CHANGE THE BIOS SETTINGS SO THAT IT BOOTS FROM INTERNAL HDD RATHER THAN EXTERNAL HDD WHICH HAS AN WINDOWS INSTALLED IN IT"

MY PC IS HP PRODESK 600 G3 SFF

unfortunately I'm not familiar with the 600G3 BIOS. But with an external HDD, simply plug it in after the PC boots and you should be fine.

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I needATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explainedgroup reg is bad

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2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

unfortunately I'm not familiar with the 600G3 BIOS.

@Fasauceome SEE THIS IF IT CAN HELP :)

image.thumb.png.d1557305220cd3b2f3e74b84c516a535.pngs

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14 minutes ago, Abhirupam Sarmah said:

@Fasauceome SEE THIS IF IT CAN HELP :)

 

unfortunately it doesn't help

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I needATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explainedgroup reg is bad

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what's so hard dude.

Just press the key the pc says to press to go in the bios right after you turn on the pc, then browse through the menus and figure out yourself where you select the boot order.

If you don't change anything, you can simply exit that bios from meu or simply by turning pc off so theres no risk.

 

even if you let it be and somehow you boot from the usb drive by accident, you ca just shut down, disconnect the usb drive, start pc and when you're in windows plug the drive back.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

what's so hard dude.

Just press the key the pc says to press to go in the bios right after you turn on the pc, then browse through the menus and figure out yourself where you select the boot order.

If you don't change anything, you can simply exit that bios from meu or simply by turning pc off so theres no risk.

 

even if you let it be and somehow you boot from the usb drive by accident, you ca just shut down, disconnect the usb drive, start pc and when you're in windows plug the drive back.

 

 

@mariushm I am not that great of a tech geek thats why i actually asked 😅

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You don't need to worry about the boot order if you're using USB adapter. Just plug the drive in once you have booted and delete all partitions in Disk Management.

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13 hours ago, Chionele said:

You don't need to worry about the boot order if you're using USB adapter. Just plug the drive in once you have booted and delete all partitions in Disk Management.

@Chionele I cant delete delete any files in it since its containing important files. Is there any way i.e without deleting or formatting any thing

 

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You can.  Save any files you want from that external drive, then start Disk Management with administrator rights  (Control panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management (Run as administrator) > Disk Management )

 

Select your external usb drive , then select the letter which had Windows on that drive, right click on it and select Delete partition.

Then you can right click on the empty space and select Create partition to create a new partition (with all empty space) and give it a letter to be able to access it in Windows.

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1 minute ago, mariushm said:

You can.  Save any files you want from that external drive, then start Disk Management with administrator rights  (Control panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management (Run as administrator) > Disk Management )

 

Select your external usb drive , then select the letter which had Windows on that drive, right click on it and select Delete partition.

Then you can right click on the empty space and select Create partition to create a new partition (with all empty space) and give it a letter to be able to access it in Windows.

Thanks i will surely try that out

 

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