using an internal HDD as an external HDD advice if possible?

[Bsrz]

Hey guys I need to get another HDD as my current HDD - 1TB is boarder line full at about 40gb left - I want to get another HDD so that I can backup all my files from my SSD and my 1tb HDD.

My questions are these.

option 1 :
should I buy an external 2-3TB HDD

option 2:
or can I buy an Internal 2-3TB HDD and use it outside with some sort of adaptor?

option 3:
or finally is there a way I can swap my current 1TB HDD for a larger 2 - 3 TB HDD but move all the data from the old drive to the new drive.

The only reason I am thinking of getting an internal drive whether to be used instead of my current drive or externally as an additional drive, is that I might need the extra storage space for new games and software and also I am looking into getting maybe a SSHD since they claim to be a lot faster than a standard 7200rpm HDD.

sorry If my questions were not clear I just want to know what options I have. Thanks in advance.

 

[mantadog]

You can go ahead and buy a 2 or 3 TB internal HDD and just use it for storage, no need to get rid of your existing one.

Once you install and format the drive just drag and drop your existing files to it.

This would save reinstalling windows, games and applications. You can probably run a minimum of 3 or 4 HDD's depending on your motherboard so no problems just adding a 2nd drive.

 

[tom_gr7]

personally, I prefer to user external drives as backup drives only. Using "synctoy" to create backups of the internal drive to the external drive.

 

[Androcles]

Myself I would buy the 2-3 tb internal drive and a hdd caddy, then swap the drives over and use the old drive in the caddy as a backup drive.

 

[Bsrz]

I decided that I am going to buy a 2TB external HDD and backup everything from my pc onto it and then when I want to use any of the software or games I am going to copy the files from the external HDD to my 1TB internal HDD. this way everything is backed up and I wont run out of room on my internal HDD. steam and origin should normally just check that all the files are there once they have been copied and then I can play the game, once I have finished playing it I can copy the files back to the HDD.
it also means that I can buy a 500gb SSD in a few months and swap it for my 1tb Internal atm but still keep all my files on the external and do the same thing, copy the files over onto the internal when I want to use them Thanks for the help and advice guys.