Accessing a Hard Drive from my Broken Laptop

I have an old laptop that broke - not sure what is wrong but its 8 years old so I don't plan to have it fixed.

My question. Is there a way to access the hard drive using my desktop PC? My laptop has Windows XP installed on it. My desktop has Vista.

Is it as simple as just pulling it out and connecting it in one of the spare slots available on my desktop? (wishful thinking)

 

Quick answer is yes, it could be installed in your desktop. That would require adapters. Desktops use 3.5 inch hard drives. Laptops use 2.5 inch hard drives. Your old laptop hard is probably an IDE drive. Your desktop probably only uses SATA drives. So, again, an adapter would be needed. I haven't actually done such a conversion so I think I'll leave specific recommendations on hardware needed to do the conversion to other forum members.

Also, if you merely want to temporarily connect the laptop hard drive to the desktop instead doing a permanent installation, that could also be done with an adapter and I believe would be easier.

And then, another option would be to buy an external enclose for a 2.5" IDE hard drive and thereby convert the laptop hard drive to an external hard drive that could be connected to your desktop system via USB port. Here's an external enclosure for $10: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...external_enclosure_ide-_-17-182-143-_-Product I'd say this option, at this price, really is the easiest solution if you just want to access files on the old hard drive and have no intention of installing the operating system or other software on it.

 

Thank you for the help.

Accessing them and treating it like an external HD would be even easier than installing it. I just wasn't aware this was an option. In my reading about this I heard about having to set a slave drive etc when adding another HD, but I assume I can ignore all of this if connecting via USB?

Also - is the adapter as simple as just connecting the laptop HD to it, closing it up and connecting it to my desktop via USB? If so, this is really good news.

 

This is one of my FAVORITE tools!! :-D


http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=39


Works like a charm, though you are resigned to USB 2.0 speeds. Good for malware scanning, without booting the drive's OS.

Most motherboards will still have an EIDE port, for older style CD-ROM drives. You would have to use the BIOS settings to set the 2.5" as Primary Drive, or Drive 0.

This would do the trick in tandem with a ribbon cable:

http://www.chevrontechnologies.net.au/MI-MF-325H.html

:major

 

Yes, putting the laptop drive in an external enclosure and using it that way does not require any master or slave hard drive settings. Just connect it to a USB port.

I'm not sure what you mean by adapter here. If you mean the external enclosure, then yes, you just put the drive in the enclosure after connecting it to the power and data connectors inside the enclosure, close the enclosure, and you're ready to use it as an external hard drive.

By the way, the current price on that external enclosure in the link I previously posted is a temporary offer. It will probably go back to $19.99 when the offer ends, and there may also be shipping charges then.