Can I use laptop HDD like a USB drive?

[jamor]

I have a CPU that I recently built.

I also have a laptop that is dead with some HDD data that I want to recover.

I just want to extract some files from the disk - if I plug the HDD into MOBO and Power will I be able to treat it as a USB drive and just pull off the files I need.. Or am I going to have to install it and treat it as a new drive (formatting and the whole nine yards).

Eventually I may reformat the drive and use it as extra storage. But for now I just want to pull files off of it.

Thanks

 

[GhislainG]

You could use it as a USB drive if you install it in a 2.5" USB case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817620001
http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Hard-Drive-Case-Enclosure/dp/B001AAVA08