When you get a new computer, what do you do with your old one? Some of you use it as a secondary unit. Others may give it away or hand it down to the kids. But if you still have your old computer sitting there and not doing anything, did you know you can take the hard drive out, re-format it and you’ll have the beginnings of a brand new external drive?
The best thing is you don’t have to get super technical with all this either. Products like the Voyager S2 from NewerTech works just like a toaster. You plug the docking station into your computer – it has USB if you’re not familiar with all the geeky SATA plugs. Then insert your hard drive into the slot. You’ll be ready to start saving files onto the drive. You can use as many drives as you want (one at a time).
We’ve been using the external hard drive case method which is the same concept, just more physical tinkering and plugging for a long time. It really does work and the savings can be significant because hard drives are a whole lot cheaper to buy than all in one external hard drives. They are also a lot larger than USB drives 
. The Voyager S2 starts at $59.99.
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Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them.
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This is a great tip, and one I probably wouldn’t have thought of. I tend to run my computers until they are completely fried, but it might be worth looking into buying a used unit on Ebay for this purpose.
Hey Cindy, well just because the computer is dead does not always mean the hard drive is too. There are so many components of the computer. Sometimes it’s the memory, sometimes it’s the motherboard and sometimes it’s has simple as the power supply caving in. So don’t be surprised to find that your hard drives may still be salvageable.