Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > Other Components > Can I remove the hardrive out of a laptop and use it as an external hardrive on

Can I remove the hardrive out of a laptop and use it as an external hardrive on

Forum CPU & Components : Other Components - Can I remove the hardrive out of a laptop and use it as an external hardrive on

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kcryer   09-02-2009 at 07:49:03 AM

I have a laptop that has a problem on the motherboard. I want to remove the hardrive and use it as an external hardrive for my desktop. Is this even possible? Is there some type of an adapter/enclosures that will work to accomplish this?

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Bronze CPUs badge sminlal   09-02-2009 at 08:03:18 AM
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Yep, just search for "External USB Enclosure 2.5" (the 2.5 is the size of a laptop hard drive). The only thing to watch out for is to make sure you get an enclosure which takes either an IDE or a SATA drive to match the type of drive you have in your laptop.

Here's a Newegg search.

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grieve   09-02-2009 at 09:23:04 PM
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Also, you will have to format the 2.5" drive...

Kcryer, your almost better off selling the drive and putting the funds towards a 7200 RPM hard drive and a Esata drive enclosure. The 5200 RPM laptop drive will be very slow... On the other hand i guess it is already paid for an you just need a suitable enclosure.

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mindless728   09-02-2009 at 09:37:08 PM
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i think it would be better than using a 7200rpm drives, with the 2.5" 5400rpm drives you don't need an extra power connector, i can be run off of the usb ports

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Bronze CPUs badge sminlal   09-03-2009 at 01:04:06 AM
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...the 5200 rpm drive will also run cooler in an external enclosure and, if the OP is using a USB connection, the slower rotational speed won't make a difference since USB will be the bottleneck.

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plasmastorm   09-03-2009 at 01:16:50 AM
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Also it's doubtful you will need to format it anyway, I plug in laptop drives to usb caddies all day at work, never had to format one to use it.
Just plug it in and use the data thats on it.

Only format if you want a clean drive.

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fazers_on_stun   09-04-2009 at 01:15:41 AM
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kcryer wrote :

I have a laptop that has a problem on the motherboard. I want to remove the hardrive and use it as an external hardrive for my desktop. Is this even possible? Is there some type of an adapter/enclosures that will work to accomplish this?



Why external? You wanna lug it around to plug into other PCs?

I have an 80 GB and 100 GB drive from a couple of lappies, and just plugged them into a SATA port and power cable, then taped them down on a piece of plastic on the bottom of my case, out of sight from the side window. Looks kinda ugly with the side off, but otherwise can't tell. Granted they're 5400 rpm drives, but they make for good backup of data, not primary usage, so speed doesn't really matter much.

As for moving data between PCs, that's what my shared folders on my home network are for :).

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