how easy is it to remove and use the hard drive from a laptop?

celtboy1888

i have a laptop that is nearly done, needs work on it...the person who owns it dont want to spend anything on it..all they want is the pics and music off drive..is this something i could do myself??

Random

This may void any warranty if there's one on it.

You'll need an external hard drive enclosure or some sort of adapter for connecting the HDD to your desktop PC but you'll pick them up cheap enough ebay / PC World/ Maplin / Peats etc.

As for removing the hard drive it's easy once you're anyway technically minded. Just google the manual and you'll have instructions for removing the HDD.

celtboy1888

well i hav a 3.5 hard drive ...so i could just pop the laptop one into it and boot up?

Alanstrainor

does the laptop turn on at all? If you could get it to boot at all it might be just as handy to use a usb stick to get all of the files.

celtboy1888

no, the power jack input bit is fooked...so no power...and to fix i would have to send to dublin...so if i can get the files off it..i can keep the drive:)

celtboy1888

sorry shameless bump:)

Blackhorse Slim

You can remove the hard drive easily enough in most laptops - it's usually just a case of removing a screw and pulling the drive. As mentioned, this may void a warranty, but in your case I guess that doesn't matter.

Once you have the hard drive out, you need to see whether it's SATA or IDE. If it has pins that connect to the laptop, it's IDE, if the connection is plastic it's SATA. You can google sata and ide to get a better idea of what they look like.

So now you have the hard drive, and you know whether it's sata or ide. You now need a way to connect it to another pc/laptop. You can't just swap it into another laptop as the main drive, unless the other laptop is the same make and model as the original, or it will most likely bluescreen. You can get a case or caddy to put the hard drive into, and then connect that as a USB drive to your second laptop/pc to retrieve the files you want. Something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/3-5-SATA-External-Enclosure-Caddy/dp/B000OOMY42


(this is a SATA one).

This should then work as a standard external usb drive. Once you have recovered the your files, it would probably be best to reformat and check the disk, and then you have a new external drive.

bombibom

USB 2.0 TO SATA IDE 2.5 3.5 CABLE ADAPTER+POWER SUPPLY.I bought one of those on ebay for 16€ down to my door.It will read any hard drive and it is very simple to use.Just plug and play no instalation required.

celtboy1888

thanks guys...job done;)