Serial ATA hard drive from PC as external hard drive for Mac???

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Ok, so I'm not computer illiterate but I'm not the most savvy guy either. I will be picking up a new Macbook soon and want to know if it's possible to take the Serial ATA hard drive out of my Sony VAIO and use a USB cable to connect it to my new Macbook and essentially use it as an external hard drive (in order to transfer all my old files to the new Macbook)? I have already tried this set up with my hard drive to my PS3 and the PS3 does not recognize that there is any sort of storage device plugged in. So obviously my concern is that the Macbook won't recognize it either. My first guess is that this is possible but I may have to format the disk with OS X in order for it to be recognized, but if I do that will I loose all my data? If someone could advise me on whether this is possible or if I should just go out and buy an external hard drive it would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Putting your Serial ATA hard drive in a USB enclosure will indeed allow you to at least read the files that were on your VAIO so you can copy them. If it is NTFS formatted you will not be able to write to that drive, but you can definitely reformat it via your new Macbook once you have copied your files over to your internal drive. Once that is done you can use it as additional read/write storage.

Remember that a PS3 is not necessarily equivalent to the capabilities of a Macbook. The Macbook will be far more able to deal with external storage. Naturally you won't want any of the WINDOWS stuff, as it will not be of any use to you with your Macbook, but your data (documents, pictures, music, etc.) should be quite accessible. Make sure you've transferred it all before you reformat the (now) external drive.
 
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OK great, I appreciate the response. I will be on an island without a wi-fi connection when I attempt this so I was hoping to transfer everything in this manner and not via network sharing.
 

chscag

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Also keep in mind that an ordinary USB enclosure made for PATA drives will not work. You must either use an enclosure with a SATA interface or an adapter before either your PS3 or Mac will recognize it.

Regards.
 

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