Soothing Moment - DIY a external flash drive on Earth Day
Earth Day is just around the corner on Apr 22.
I know a lot of folks out there use the flash memory card in camera, camcorder and use it to save large files of videos and downloads. The price of average flash memory card is dropping fast each year and in the process, many households are ending up with not-so-popular cards in a variety of capacity, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB. The same can be said on laptop computers.
I use flash memory card and love them, but I don't like the notion that consumer are paying for the revolution and the interchangebility. So I decide to research this topics a bit, my goal would be to find something that can act as a external flash drive and retrofit it with my old laptop hard drive. Our average laptop drives are manufactured with at least 10GB+ capacity and this would be perfect for replacing flash memory cards and save a lot of money!
The first stop for my adventure is local Frys. At the hard drive department, I quickly find they carry many different brands of "hard drive enclosure". The right type for laptop is labeled "2.5 inch" since most laptop drives are 2.5 inch. So I pick one for about $12.00. Amazon also carry a lot of the external USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure - 2.5 in, here is a shot of what it looks like:
Inside this enclosure is a circuit board that will interface with your USB port, a cable is provided as part of the kit to plug into the USB ports. Installation is easy, all you have to do is to unscrew the case using a jeweler's screw driver and plug the laptop hard drive to the circuit board. When plugged in, make sure the circuit board is flushed with the drive. If not, most likely the drive is plugged in wrong direction, and you just need to flip the drive and re-plug the drive.
Laptop drive has two rows of golden pin and they are straight. The straighness is very important to mate the circuit board to the drive. If the pins are bend, you will have a hard time to plug the circuit board.
Once you put back the enclosure, all you need to do is just to connect the cable to the USB of your computer and the other end to the enclosure, and this is it - your portable high speed flash drive that is recylced from your old laptop!
The finished flash drive is small and measures 7.1 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches (typical) and 0.8 ounces. It can easily fit into your pocket or attache for easy carry and best of all, you save money and being green on Earth Day.
This year will mark the beginning of The Green Generation CampaignTM which will also be the focus of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.For more information on Earth Day, you can check out Earth Day site that can give you detailed events for this year.
I know a lot of folks out there use the flash memory card in camera, camcorder and use it to save large files of videos and downloads. The price of average flash memory card is dropping fast each year and in the process, many households are ending up with not-so-popular cards in a variety of capacity, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB. The same can be said on laptop computers.
I use flash memory card and love them, but I don't like the notion that consumer are paying for the revolution and the interchangebility. So I decide to research this topics a bit, my goal would be to find something that can act as a external flash drive and retrofit it with my old laptop hard drive. Our average laptop drives are manufactured with at least 10GB+ capacity and this would be perfect for replacing flash memory cards and save a lot of money!
The first stop for my adventure is local Frys. At the hard drive department, I quickly find they carry many different brands of "hard drive enclosure". The right type for laptop is labeled "2.5 inch" since most laptop drives are 2.5 inch. So I pick one for about $12.00. Amazon also carry a lot of the external USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure - 2.5 in, here is a shot of what it looks like:
Inside this enclosure is a circuit board that will interface with your USB port, a cable is provided as part of the kit to plug into the USB ports. Installation is easy, all you have to do is to unscrew the case using a jeweler's screw driver and plug the laptop hard drive to the circuit board. When plugged in, make sure the circuit board is flushed with the drive. If not, most likely the drive is plugged in wrong direction, and you just need to flip the drive and re-plug the drive.Laptop drive has two rows of golden pin and they are straight. The straighness is very important to mate the circuit board to the drive. If the pins are bend, you will have a hard time to plug the circuit board.
Once you put back the enclosure, all you need to do is just to connect the cable to the USB of your computer and the other end to the enclosure, and this is it - your portable high speed flash drive that is recylced from your old laptop!
The finished flash drive is small and measures 7.1 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches (typical) and 0.8 ounces. It can easily fit into your pocket or attache for easy carry and best of all, you save money and being green on Earth Day.
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