The Energon Pub

Some of you may recall a few months ago that I mentioned my computer ceased to work. Well, because of some electronics-recycling thing that went on today, all that remains of said computer is the hard drive. (The successful removal of which I consider to be my crowning computorial achievement.)

So, does anyone know how I can hook the hard drive up to the laptop I'm currently using, so I can get at the files that may still reside therein?

As far as I know, a desktop's hard drive is incompatible with a laptop.

A USB hard drive enclosure is your best bet.

Tekka wrote:A USB hard drive enclosure is your best bet.

Agree. A 3.5 inch hard drive enclosure will effectively turn your internal PC hard drive into a USB hard drive.

This one for example: http://www.amazon.com/Macally-PHR-100AC ... B0000B3ALF

You'll need to make sure your hard drives interface matches that of the enclosure. If its IDE look for IDE enclosures, if its SATA you'll need a SATA enclosure.

Overcracker wrote:

Tekka wrote:A USB hard drive enclosure is your best bet.

Agree. A 3.5 inch hard drive enclosure will effectively turn your internal PC hard drive into a USB hard drive.

This one for example: http://www.amazon.com/Macally-PHR-100AC ... B0000B3ALF

You'll need to make sure your hard drives interface matches that of the enclosure. If its IDE look for IDE enclosures, if its SATA you'll need a SATA enclosure.

You shot who in the what now?

Two cables come out the ass end of a hard drive. One of them is the power cable. You can tell which one it is because it goes to the power supply. Which is the box with the fan on its ass that is up at the top rear of your computer case, if you have a tower case.

The other cable is either an IDE cable or a SATA cable, depending on how old your hard drive is. An IDE cable is the classic 'ribbon' cable, and it leads to a big fat 40-pin connector on your drive, with two long rows of holes. A SATA cable is a skinny little cable, and leads to a narrower drive connector that has a little L-shaped notch on the end. Either of these cables will run to a similar connector slot on the motherboard.

EevilJ wrote:Two cables come out the ass end of a hard drive. One of them is the power cable. You can tell which one it is because it goes to the power supply. Which is the box with the fan on its ass that is up at the top rear of your computer case, if you have a tower case.

The other cable is either an IDE cable or a SATA cable, depending on how old your hard drive is. An IDE cable is the classic 'ribbon' cable, and it leads to a big fat 40-pin connector on your drive, with two long rows of holes. A SATA cable is a skinny little cable, and leads to a narrower drive connector that has a little L-shaped notch on the end. Either of these cables will run to a similar connector slot on the motherboard.

Ahhhh. This one had the ribbon cable.

...Was I supposed to keep that for this whole rigmarole to work?

Nah, that's only if you're putting the drive /inside/ the machine. If you're temporarily turning a dismounted hard drive into a big USB stick, all you need is one of the adapters we linked.

Ah, that's a relief, then. Thanks for all the help.