access hd via compac win7

Greetings Geeks!

I've got a laptop hd I'd like to access on my compac w/win7. I've got a little cash and lots of time so i'd like to see if I can just use this device as part of my desktop.

As a side issue, the laptop itself lost the hinges, then the screen broke, and now there's no sign of life anywhere. I've acquired a recon laptop which is very nice, but if i could get even a little functionality out of the old one it would be worth it, so any tips to that tangent would also be appreciated.

Thank you everyone for all the help.

 

If all you are trying to do is grab data off of the drive or drives, I would use one of these. Just make sure you avoid touching the PCB of the drive.

If you plan on using it an a USB external drive, I would buy an external enclosure like this. This is a SATA enclosure, depending on the age of your computer, it could be an IDE drive. You would need one of these.

You could mount it internally in the desktop. If the drive is SATA, purchase power and data SATA cables. If an IDE drive purchase a 80wire IDE ribbon cable.