How to Connect a PC Hard Drive to a Laptop
If you have made the switch from a desktop to a laptop, you may find yourself with some extra hard drives lying around, some of which may have important data you would like to access on your laptop. Unfortunately, desktop computers typically use 3.5-inch hard drives, while laptops use 2.5-inch drives, so you can't just swap out drives. The solution is to use an external USB enclosure for your PC drive. By using an enclosure for your PC hard drive you can quickly connect the drive to your laptop and have access to the drive just like any other drive on your system.
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Instructions
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Open the housing on your USB external enclosure. Most external enclosures have four screws either on the side or on the back to keep the housing together. Using a small Phillips screwdriver, remove these screws and open the housing. Every external enclosure is different, so be sure to refer to the documentation included with your enclosure for the proper procedure.
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Slide your PC hard drive into the external enclosure. Make sure the data and power connections are properly connected.
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Use the included screws to screw the hard drive into the enclosure and put the housing back together.
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Plug the external enclosure into a working outlet to verify the drive has power. The enclosure should have an LED light indicating the enclosure has power and the drive is working. Also listen for the drive to spin.
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Plug the external enclosure into a USB port on your laptop.
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Power on your laptop and, if it has a power switch, turn on your external enclosure.
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Wait for your laptop to recognize the drive. If you are using XP or Vista, the drive should be recognized almost immediately. Once the drive is recognized, you will have access to it just like any other drive in your system
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Tips & Warnings
If your PC hard drive has not been formatted, you will need to format it using your operating system's formatting utility before you can read and write data to the drive.
If your PC hard drive is older, it will use an IDE port to connect to the enclosure. Newer drives use a Serial ATA (or SATA) connection. Make sure you purchase an enclosure for your drive's connector, as IDE and SATA connections are not compatible with one another.
