How to Dismount a Hard Drive & Mount it in Another Computer
If you have a computer with a bad processor or motherboard but a good hard drive, you can salvage the information on that drive and give another computer more storage space by taking the hard drive out of the bad computer and mounting it in a new one. In addition, you can transform an ordinary internal hard drive into a powerful external hard drive by using a special adapter cable or drive enclosure.
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Instructions
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Shut down the computer whose drive you will be removing. Locate and remove the retaining screws on the back of the case and then find the case release lever. This lever should be on the top if the computer is designed to sit flat on a desk, and on the side if the computer uses a tower-case design.
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Remove the case cover and locate the hard drive inside the computer. Trace the cable that runs from the back of the drive and remove it from the motherboard. Also remove the power cable from the back of the drive. Remove the screws that hold the hard drive in the bay and remove it from the old computer.
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Decide whether you want to use the hard drive as an internal or external drive. If you want to use it as an external USB drive, purchsae a USB drive enclosure, open the enclosure according to the manufacturer's instructions and place the drive inside. After the drive has been placed inside the enclosure, it can be connected to a USB port to serve as an external drive.
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Turn off the computer that the drive will be going into if you want to use your old drive internally. Remove the retaining screws from the back of the case and use the case release lever to remove the case cover.
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Locate an empty hard drive bay and slide the drive into place. Secure the hard drive with screws and run the attached cable to the motherboard on the new computer. Fasten the cable to the motherboard and run the power cable from the power supply to the back of the drive. If you are replacing the hard drive in this computer, you will need to first remove the hard drive. If you want to add the new drive as a secondary hard drive just slide it into an empty bay using the procedure outlined above.
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