using an old 3.5 hdd on a laptop?

Well my laptop's hdd was ruined. I don't want to waste any money right so I wanna try this out. I found an old 40 gb 3.5 hdd. 40 sounds pretty low for some people but i just need to use my laptop as a internet surfing pc. I have the family pc tfor itunes and such. So the connectors don't match, what kind of cable adaptors are there to to connect an 3.5 hdd for a 2.5 connecter pin.
Sorry if I'm using wrong terms and such, don't know much about computers.
I can take pictures if need be.

 

It's impossible to use a 3.5 inch hard drive in a laptop.

Only way to fix laptop would be purchasing a 2.5 inch hard drive.

 

You could look at something like the thing below to use the drives, but I am pretty sure you will be unable to boot from a USB connection, just buy another laptop HD, they dont cost much and will be much easier to install.


http://www.usbnow.co.uk/Hard_Drive_...A_USB_2.0_HDD_+_Card_Reader/product_info.html

 

Also be advised that 2.5 drives have SATA or PATA connections, just like 3.5 drives.

SATA drives have a blade or "card edge" connection - like that of a video card or PCI card.

PATA drives have pin connectors.

Sometimes, there is an adapter specific to the brand of Laptop that is connected to the hard drive - you have to pull it off to expose the SATA or PATA connections.