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Old Laptop HDD's for backup / archive
Hi there.
If you are upgrading a Laptop to an SSD or higher capacity drive or even replacing a laptop DON'T throw away the internal HDD's -- even if they are only 160 GB.
These make absolutely EXCELLENT backup / Archive storage areas or even Music / movie libraries.
Use a USB2==>SATA connector to connect to machine (even a tablet) - the low power of these devices make them great for this purpose as you don't need any extra power supply or even have to use enclosures.
I "rescued" 20 of these from a store that was just chucking out stuff -- re-format, HDD test and they are all good. Provided you haven't got too many users concurrently they go well in a NAS server too. Even though these disks aren't the fastest they are more than fast enough for streaming purposes (the limit is probably your Wi-Fi connection rather than the HDD's).
Here's the pic of a USB==>sata connector -- costs around 2 USD.
BTW opening up a laptop to get at the HDD is no problem -- even if you have a very old laptop the HDD can be "rescued".
Cheers
jimbo