# Problem using my former hard drive as external drive on my new computer **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-using-my-former-hard-drive-as-external-drive-on-my-new-computer/662462 "2013-07-02T17:28:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-using-my-former-hard-drive-as-external-drive-on-my-new-computer/662462/21 "2013-07-05T04:58:04Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > You don’t install it: you place the Live CD in the CD/DVD drive, or the dongle in a USB slot; then the operating system appears because it is solely running in memory, not as it usually is from a hard disk. > However, if you haven’t come across this, it might be best not to experiment. And please note, I would never ever urge anyone to use a Linux OS who doesn’t already want to try it. Agreed, but this is just a stop-gap to allow files to be recovered and check the viability of the drives. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-using-my-former-hard-drive-as-external-drive-on-my-new-computer/662462/22 "2013-07-05T20:44:33Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Have you considered putting the drives back in the notebook computer, connecting an external monitor and seeing if you can get it to boot? At least then you can copy the files off it. Also, I think it’s a little weird for a notebook system to have dual hard drives. But perhaps they were in some sort of RAID array? That might explain why you can’t read them individually. This is also my advice, being certain that you get them in the same slot you had them before. This model does indeed have dual hard drive bays. It’s not configured as RAID out of the box, and no one in their right mind would configure a laptop as RAID 5. You might mirror them for redundancy, or combine them for a single drive letter, but striping gives you only a slight boost of speed while rendering all your data vulnerable to a single failure. How did the screen get broken? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-using-my-former-hard-drive-as-external-drive-on-my-new-computer/662462/23 "2013-07-05T20:49:57Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > It’s not configured as RAID out of the box, and no one in their right mind would configure a laptop as RAID 5. You might mirror them for redundancy, or combine them for a single drive letter, but striping gives you only a slight boost of speed while rendering all your data vulnerable to a single failure. I think you mean RAID-1. (RAID-5 requires 3 or more drives.) And I don’t think it’s uncommon to have RAID-1 on a laptop, for those who want maximum performance. Especially since laptop drives are slower than desktop counterparts. But anyway, even if it’s a RAID-0 (mirroring) configuration, if you take out one drive and connect it to another computer, I think it would be unreadable. So this seems like a very real possibility. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-using-my-former-hard-drive-as-external-drive-on-my-new-computer/662462/24 "2013-07-11T19:49:31Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > I think you mean RAID-1. (RAID-5 requires 3 or more drives.) And I don’t think it’s uncommon to have RAID-1 on a laptop, for those who want maximum performance. Especially since laptop drives are slower than desktop counterparts. Urf. Yes, I meant RAID 1. > [@](#): > > But anyway, even if it’s a RAID-0 (mirroring) configuration, if you take out one drive and connect it to another computer, I think it would be unreadable. So this seems like a very real possibility. Is that true? Seems like it would not be, although I admit I’ve never tried it. Why couldn’t you use a mirrored drive in a singleton configuration, as long as you aren’t trying to boot from it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-using-my-former-hard-drive-as-external-drive-on-my-new-computer/662462.md?page=1)