laptop harddrive question....?

Question

My wife has an HP laptop that the motherboard crapped out on. We are trying to figure out if we can pull the harddrive out of it, and somehow install it into a destop system (internally or externally) so we can get some of the files off of it. Any ideas or suggestions. (I'd rather not let geek squad do it)

Answer 1

This would do it (and for a mcuh less than geek squad)

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=906&sku=17705&cm_mmc_o=-p8ByplCjCiICd-PJ1RJmCjCBftwy%20kz5fB5%20zpz5fwy%20fwyFlCjCgBEEwgf%20kz5fB5%20tzyp%20pybMw%20fB%205g%20C_&gclid=CKbT4onS0o0CFQlQWAod-we5mQ
BTW this is probably what they will use anyway,.

Answer 2

Most laptops run on SATA. You would be able to hook up a laptop HDD to your desktop if your computer has either SATA intigrated into the motherboard. Or if you have a special card for it. Also, you need to have an SATA power supply. Most likely you wont have these things unless it is a newer desktop with a lot of HDD space. You can hook it all up for about 60 dollars and you could perminatly run the laptops HDD on it if you wanted to. But before you buy anything make sure the connector on your laptops HDD looks something like the pic on the scond link at the bottom, since that is was an SATA port looks like. I hope that this helped, good luck.

Answer 3

What about getting an external housing for it so this way, you not only get the files you're looking for, but a nice external HD that you can use for backing up your stuff off the desktop ?

Answer 4

Yes. You can use an adapter, like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812203012

Answer 5

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peripherals/Cabling/ATA100%2F133/+Laptop+HD+to+3.5''+HD+IDE+Converter?productId=8349
easy and surprisingly cheap