Can I connect a 3.5" hard drive to my laptop externally?

Question

I have a Dell laptop with a very small hard drive, and can't afford a new one. I have a friend with a spare 80gig desktop hard drive. I'm wondering if I can get a casing for the desktop hard drive and attach it to my laptop with a cable? Will it be compatible? I'm not that cluey....

Answer 1

yea just hook it to your computer with a USB cable and it should fine. Good luck!

Answer 2

It depends on the physical size of the hard drive and what type of drive it is.

Usually it it's an IDE hard drive it will work. Call Tiger Direc and tell them you need a USB External Hard Drive Enclosure.

Give them the size of the drive and whether it's IDE, SATA, SCSI or other interface type and the physical dimensions.

The cases includes a power supply and USB cable and must be plugged in using the included AC Adapter into a wall outlet. So it's not usable if you're running off of batteries and don't have access to an AC outlet. They cost around $60.

Answer 3

Yes. You can buy a 3.5" hard drive casing(container) at the local computer stores. It usually comes with USB 2.0 cable. The hard drive casing is usually big and you'll need some space on your table for the external hard drive. :D

Answer 4

In old school style you could use the Printer Port COM3? and run a network to it. Or get a USB. Or get a 2 Channel IDE cable, Master/Slave marked conections and your good to go.

Answer 5

Yes, they sell external floppys that connect via USB for fairly cheap.

Answer 6

yep. as long as u can connect it to ur comp (usb cable). also, it may or may not show up on ur desktop but will be in ur "my computer" folder as another harddrive.