Seagate | GravelCloud

Seagate Freeagent USB Drive To eSATA Conversion

PROBLEM: Seagate Freeagent 750GB USB drive is too slow to function as a main backup drive.
FIX: Disassemble the USB drive and transplant the internal hard drive to a trayless SATA external enclosure.

BACKGROUND:
I needed more space to accommodate all my Hyper-V related files ie .vhdx which are huge. I have this Seagate Freeagent 750GB drive in my tiny Sentry Safe but it is bulky and very slow. The USB data transfer is maxing out at 20MB/sec and to transfer a 300GB vhdx files every week is just not so pretty. The objective is to copy the files quickly and then remove the drive from the Poweredge 2950 server and place the drive into the fire safe for safekeeping. This is the weekly copy of all my work [the backup of the backup thingy]

I was thinking of getting a new drive but I needed to utilize all my resources first before wasting my money on bigger space and smaller profile drives.

I opted out for the StartTech 3.5” trayless because I wanted to reuse my old drives for quick testing and swapping of drives on the fly.

Step By Step:
0. Proceed at your own risk [disclaimer]
2. Watch the YouTube video to learn how to disassemble the Freeagent Drive
3. Disassemble the Freeagent Drive
4. Remove/Separate the 3.5” internal drive from the old case
5. Insert the 3.5” drive to the StarTech trayless external enclosure
6. Turn on power of the Trayless Enclosure
7. Open Windows Disk Management App
8. Verify 750GB drive is present and healthy
9. Run data transfer test to measure data throughput
10. END.

Note: I did not have to import the disk, Disk Management recognized the drive as is.

Benefits:
1. I did not have to buy another drive
2. Sentry Safe has extra space now
3. Startech Trayless Cage has an internal fan that provides a mild cooling to the drive
4. Gained an data transfer speed from 20MB/sec to 60MB/sec
6. Quick drive swap

Figure 1: