Can I use a desktop hard drive in my laptop?

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

In the desktop that I'm getting soon I stupidly forgot to include a optical disk drive. So I was wondering if I could temporarily use the hard drive I ordered for the desktop on my laptop in order to install windows 8 onto it.

markwp · Apr 15, 2014

No, not in the manner you are thinking. If you could find a way to hook up the hdd to your laptop for the purpose of install W8, the installation would use the hardware from the laptop which would not boot in your desktop.

Rather than worry about an optical drive, just download the usb install program from microsoft and install to your new desktop via usb.

Mark

BradleyJames · Apr 15, 2014

a destop hard drive is 3.5 inch, laptop 2.5 inch. it will not fit, you would have to get a usb or esata ( if your laptop has esata) hard drive bay to do what you want it to. i would nt reccommend installing win 8 on a different computer then putting it in a second. most likely will blue screen when you put it in your destop. they reccommmend to do a clean install even when swapping motherboards. every component will be different in your desktop as it is in your laptop

mbreslin1954 · Apr 15, 2014

Desktop hard drives are usually 3.5 inch drives, much larger (about four times as large) than laptop hard drives, which are 2.5 inch drives. There is no way a 3.5" hard drive will fit in a laptop.

You can use a USB flash drive to install Windows, or an external USB optical drive.

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

markwp :

But it would have nothing to install to other than my desktop hard drive because my plan was to remove my laptops hard drive and put the desktop's in its place.

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

mbreslin1954 :

It doesn't have to fit, it can be hanging out of the bottom of my laptop for all I care. I guess the real question is "Are the two cross compatible in the ports they use?"

BradleyJames · Apr 15, 2014

do you mean can you plug the hard drive in both your desktop and laptop, if so yes, they both use sata

TG_thoMz · Apr 15, 2014

What I would do is use this: (it works with W8)
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/WinToFlash.shtml
It will create a bootable USB flash drive from your W8 disk.

DarkSable · Apr 15, 2014

PCNoobXCVII :

That's not what he's saying.

First of all, your desktop hard drive will not FIT in a laptop - it's way too large.

Second of all, even if it did, and you installed windows to it, it would have the driver support for the laptop hardware, not the desktop hardware.

This is a very easily fixable problem, as has been said before: You can install windows from a USB stick, meaning you don't need an optical drive.

USAFRet · Apr 15, 2014

PCNoobXCVII :

No.
You want to install the OS on the 3.5" drive? Then what? (even if that works)
You want to use that to install from? No. USB stick or DVD.

Power requirements for a 3.5" and a 2.5" laptop drive are significantly different.

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

BradleyJames :

Okay, you mentioned blue screening. Does the software customize itself to the computer it was originally installed on?

BradleyJames · Apr 15, 2014

yes, it installls drivers specifically for the machine you are installing it too, i highly doubt it would work from a laptop to a desktop. possibly if you install win 8 on a desktop similar to yours and swap, then it SHOULD, not definite, but should work

USAFRet · Apr 15, 2014

What are you actually trying to do?

Use a 3.5" drive in a laptop for the OS? Doubtful you can make the laptop power the drive
Use a laptop to install an OS on a 3.5" drive to eventually put in a desktop? That will not work
Install the OS from a 3.5" drive on to the laptop drive? That will not work. Use a USB stick

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

USAFRet :

BradleyJames :

Dang, I guess I'll see about putting it onto a usb and then install it using that. Thanks for the help.

Ijack · Apr 15, 2014

You could buy an external DVD drive. Only about $20-30 nowadays and it's always useful to have an optical drive (despite what Apple think).

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

Ijack :

Yeah I plan on it, but where I live there aren't really places to just buy an optical drive so it would get here later than the pc I have coming and I would just have a brick until it arrived. So I was looking to find an alternate method of installing windows 8 without the desktop having an optical drive. Ultimately I guess I have to go with USB in order to use it when it arrives.

BradleyJames · Apr 15, 2014

you can put your laptop drive in your desktop and install win 8. the power and sata connectors are the same. i have done it before. just make sure its not flapping around in there

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

BradleyJames :

I thought of that, but when I looked at a picture of the port for a typical optical disk drive for a desktop it looked both larger and reversed to the port on the one in my laptop. Are you sure I wouldn't need some sort of adapter in order to do that?

USAFRet · Apr 15, 2014

PCNoobXCVII :

A laptop size drive will fit in a desktop no problem. My wife's PC has been running a laptop drive (2.5") as the only drive for almost 2 yrs.

You cannot use a Windows install that exists on a laptop drive, and plug it into a new desktop and hope it works.
It will not.

What are you actually trying to do?

BradleyJames · Apr 15, 2014

if its a sata hdd, you would just need a regular sata and power cable from your power supply

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

BradleyJames :

Well, my bad. I thought you were referring to the optical drive in my laptop not the hard drive. But I don't see the point in it since I could install it on the hard drive I bought for the desktop.

BradleyJames · Apr 15, 2014

oh, sorry i misunderstood

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

USAFRet :

Well my original plans were to use my laptop as a medium for installing windows onto the hard drive for my desktop coming in, but that got shut down. So now I'm open for any suggestions that could work, I'm looking towards installing it using a USB drive now, but I've got to figure out how to get it from the disk to the USB drive first.

USAFRet · Apr 15, 2014

PCNoobXCVII :

Right. USB stick or DVD.

PCNoobXCVII · Apr 15, 2014

USAFRet :

How many gb should the USB be in order to install windows 8 64-bit?

Can I use a desktop hard drive in my laptop?

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