I need to hook up my laptop drive to my PC

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CP7212

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Oct 24, 2014
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4,540
I have been looking at adapters and enclosures today to find a decently-priced way to use my laptop's drive as an external drive on my PC. The problem is this, my old laptop had MS Word on it that I used for my resumès. I can't afford a new copy of MS Office at this time. The laptop's HD is fine, but the screen finally gave out. I'm pretty sure that the version of MS Word on it is before MS started matching MACs to the software.

I've been researching this, and it appears that many of the USB 2.0 to 2.5" IDE adapter cables have faulty power supplies and have burned up and/or destroyed hard drives. Most of the enclosures I've seen are SATA to SATA. Anyone know of a dependable enclosure or adapter? I'm only going to use it for when I need to access MS Office and will be used as a swappable drive. Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
RealBeast
You cannot boot your computer from that drive in a caddy, or by direct attachment. It is not a matter of finding the drivers, as you won't be able to boot to change them.

There is one possibility that I can think of if you are running Windows 7 -- a repair installation like THIS using a current Windows 7 installer disk of the same version that is on the laptop (look at the sticker for version and your Windows key). You can get a legitimate iso image of the Windows 7 version from Digital River. A repair install will install a new copy of Windows but keep all your programs and data and *must* be done with only the laptop drive and no other HDD/SSD attached, then install the proper drivers for that PC.

And...
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J

jimpz

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Jan 20, 2012
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Just plugging in the laptop HD to your PC will not let you run Word, It would have to be installed properly. Programs need to create entries in the registry to run on a Windows system. It's not possible to do this w/ a progrmam on another drive from another system.
There are free programs that will open & modify Word files & preserve their formats, Open Office is one, there are several others.
 
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C

CP7212

Reputable
Oct 24, 2014
24
0
4,540
I want to slave the drive and boot it from a multi-boot menu, that would be the same thing as having the drive originally, and the hive would be intact. I don't want to just run Word from it, but I understand what you're saying. I'm sorry if I was lacking in my description of the issue.

I tried using OpenOffice and that's what brought me to this dilemma. OO and MS Word just don't see eye to eye sometimes in the formatting department. I shudder when I send a resumè after I've reformatted it several times. It almost always knocks the very first line of my personal information backwards one tab space. An employer would take a half of a second to look at that and throw it into the trash.
 
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B

boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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You cant boot the windows off your laptop on your desktop. The hardware drivers are different for one, and for two this completley violates the microsoft oem license agreement.

If you are worried about that with resume then just save it as a pdf and then send it.
 
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C

CP7212

Reputable
Oct 24, 2014
24
0
4,540
I have the key somewhere in my "legacy box", I'll have to look for it. As for saving it as a .pdf, a lot of employers' websites now limit uploads to 1 MB. I can't get it to under that amount. As for MS and their OEM agreement, I've bought at least a half a dozen licenses of MS Office due to whatever technical mishaps have occurred/new boxes. When you have to buy a new key due to having new hardware every time, I have a hard time thinking that I am the thief. That's just my two cents though....

I would still like to find a caddy for the drive; can anyone please recommend something? I'd still like to tinker with it, even if I have to find drivers. Thanks.
 
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J

jimpz

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Jan 20, 2012
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If YOU have actually bought the soft ware (not preinstalled on a system you bought) It is your's, MS will activate it for you, possibly w/ a call to them needed.
If it an OEM version bought thru an OEM company (like HP, dell, etc) you've gotten a good price break, more than likely. .

OEM OS's bought by you, directly from MS are generally activated by them on a new system. I don't believe buy can by an OEM version of office from MS.
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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Sep 13, 2010
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You cannot boot your computer from that drive in a caddy, or by direct attachment. It is not a matter of finding the drivers, as you won't be able to boot to change them.

There is one possibility that I can think of if you are running Windows 7 -- a repair installation like THIS using a current Windows 7 installer disk of the same version that is on the laptop (look at the sticker for version and your Windows key). You can get a legitimate iso image of the Windows 7 version from Digital River. A repair install will install a new copy of Windows but keep all your programs and data and *must* be done with only the laptop drive and no other HDD/SSD attached, then install the proper drivers for that PC.

And there is no scenario where you can boot Windows 7 from a USB port with this drive, so forget that thought. Also, you cannot run a program that is installed on the laptop drive unless it is the boot drive, so no "slave" would work, although the true concept of slave drives went out with IDE.

I would first attach the drive as a secondary drive to a SATA port after the computer is running (insure that hot plugging is enabled in your bios for that SATA port first though), then back it up so that you don't lose everything if it goes wrong.
 
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Solution
C

CP7212

Reputable
Oct 24, 2014
24
0
4,540
Thank you, I was indeed basing my methods on the old IDE. I thought I could do it with SATA, but I guess not. Hmph, and I thought things were supposed to get easier as we progressed technologically. ;)
 
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