07-26-2007, 05:15 PM

and i know this isn't a mac related question, but i had to ask it. i want to clear off my old PC laptop and use it as sort of a portable hard drive. is there any way i can clear everything off of it w/o taking it somewhere for money?

07-26-2007, 06:23 PM

You can buy a 2.5" hard drive enclosure that connects via USB for pretty cheap, take out the hard drive from your laptop, throw it in the enclosure, reformat it on your Mac, and you've got yourself a clean portable hard drive...

Edit: They're all over Newegg.com for as little as $7 ------> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&name=USB+2.0

07-26-2007, 06:52 PM

very nice

07-26-2007, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by stophe

very nice

or if you dont want to take your lappy apart you could always just use your windows disk or restore disk and restore your windows laptop... that would erase everything and i guess in some way you could use it as a portable drive?? who would want to use a windows laptop for anything though, eek

07-27-2007, 01:29 AM

I'm also a recent "convert" from almost 20yrs of PC use to a 15" MBP. I've got a Windows laptop and desktop and I've been going through the same questions about what to do with them and I've come up with an interesting solution. The old WIN laptop is going to be transformed into a touch screen jukebox! I make furniture for fun so the laptop will become a part of a piece of furniture that's an entertainment center piece too! The desktop? I took it apart this afternoon to clean it up and I pulled the 750GB of HDD's out to convert into external drives for storage. The 10 and 20GB drives I've got laying around are going into the old desktop and it's going to become a linux machine to play with.

There's always something fun to do with the old PC gear!

07-27-2007, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by ste6168

or if you dont want to take your lappy apart you could always just use your windows disk or restore disk and restore your windows laptop... that would erase everything and i guess in some way you could use it as a portable drive?? who would want to use a windows laptop for anything though, eek

yeah thats more what i was thinking. i like both ideas, we'll see
EDIT: but wait.. how do i do the restore disk thing. is that doable by myself?

07-27-2007, 11:32 PM

I personally would just buy an external drive, so that you don't have to deal with any modding, and then use the old laptop for playing a really basic game like an old flight sim. or something. Hook up a joystick!