I'm looking for a budget-friendly SSD for my laptop and I have one that came from a copier. I'm wondering what steps I need to take to format it so that it works properly with my laptop.
2 Answers
Could you clarify what you mean by 'SSD from a copier'? If it's one of those copiers with built-in storage, it might have some quirks. First, you'll need to connect it to your laptop or a desktop using either an internal slot or an external USB adapter. If it shows up, you can clean it using Diskpart on Windows. Just open CMD as an admin, type 'diskpart', and then follow it with 'list disk' to identify it. After that, select it with 'select disk x' (replace x with its number) and type 'clean'. Once done, you can initialize, partition, and format it with Disk Management. If you can't see the SSD, it might be locked down for only copier use, and you may need to research how to unlock it.
Yeah, some of those copier drives are modified to prevent them from being used elsewhere. You'll know if it's not visible in Disk Management! Keep an eye out for firmware-specific issues.
Definitely try connecting it first! If you're having trouble, you might want to check if the SSD has anything on it that would prevent it from being recognized by a laptop. Sometimes printers modify the drives, making them incompatible with regular PCs. If you share a picture, that could help us give better advice too!
Great point! A pic would really help. It would let us see if there's anything unusual about the SSD's connections.
Also, if it doesn't work, you might have to look into whether it's possible to modify it to run with standard PCs. That can involve digging into some technical resources, but it can be done!