Is it possible to pull an internal SATA from an external USB drive?
 

I'm seeing a lot of sales on external 2TB drives, but I want an internal drive. The problem is that the externals are discounted to be sometimes cheaper than a 'bare bones' internal.

Are all of the externals out there SATA drives? Can I just pull one from the housing and have a drive I can use as an internal or an external or are some connections soldered?

I would expect they're SATA drives in a housing. No guarantees, and there are probably some stupid exceptions, but that just makes the most sense from a manufacturing standpoint.

The problem, of course, is that you void your warranty to find out something else is the case.

I'll second the "probably."

I recently went the other direction -- bought a SSD for my laptop, and an external enclosure for the HD that it replaced.

I can't remember ever taking apart an external drive and not finding a standard internal drive inside, but I haven't done it that much.

It seems like something you should be able to find on the manufacturer's spec sheet.

As the great Wesley Snipes said, "Always bet on black."

Western Digital Caviar Black, that is, with its industry-unique 5 year warranty.

Going cheap on hard drives is pretty expensive.

I already have two externals for my data backups. Instead of two externals, I want to move to an internal and an external. I would still have 2 2TB backup drives. I'm hoping the initial backup will be faster to an internal than to my USB 2.0 external/ I don't have USB 3.0 in my computer or on the USB drives.