How to connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer
To connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer you have to use a Laptop IDE Hard Drive Adapter. You can easily find this adapter on the Internet for $10-$15. This adapter is very handy if you want to scan a laptop hard drive for viruses and spyware using antivirus software installed on a desktop PC, transfer data from a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer or create a ghost image from one hard drive to another. I also use this adapter if a laptop hard drive has failed and I have to recover data from it.
When you connect a laptop IDE adapter, a desktop IDE cable and a laptop hard drive to each other, make sure to connect pin 1 on the hard drive, pin 1 on the desktop IDE cable to pin 1 on the adapter. On a desktop IDE cable the side painted in red goes to pin 1.
On a laptop hard drive there are 2 groups of pins. One group has 43 pins and the other has 4 pins. The pin 1 is located on the side closer to the group of 4 pins.
After you’ve assembled everything together, connect the IDE cable to a desktop PC. Connect it to a free IDE connector on the system board. When you start the computer, you should see the laptop drive in BIOS and in Windows. You can treat this drive as a regular hard drive.
Entry Filed under: Laptop Tips and Tricks
84 Responses to “How to connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer”
Pages: [9] 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
Pages: [9] 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
November 10th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Hi,
I’ve tried to connect my TOSHIBA laptop hard drive (SATA) to Deskop comp (IDE) using an adaptor. Both (laptop and Desktop) have got Windows XP.
When I connect the laptop HD - my Desktop does not see it. I go to “My Computer” and there is a list of all the Desktop drives only, but no laptop…
What am I doing wrong? Do I have to change any BIOS settings?
Also, if I connect my laptop HD to Desktop and restart my Desktop - it will display message “No Operation System detected” or something like that…
Please help! THANK YOU
November 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Ter,
I’m not sure what you are talking about. Does your desktop have no power supply?
November 1st, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I have a notebook HD adaptor for desktop but it doesn’t have any power supply. What pins are for power so I can add in the power?
September 27th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Zach,
SATA drives and IDE drives have different connectors.
Most likely you cannot do that. If your laptop came with Windows 98, it’s an old laptop and requires an IDE drive. You cannot replace your old IDE drive with a newer SATA drive.