Hard Drive

[raphaelriv]

what is the main difference between a hard drive desinged by a computer to another designed to a laptop can you interchange these hardrives without a problem? if you wanted to?

 

[Sceadwian]

The connector is the main difference. Yes, they can be switched. No I have no idea where to get adapters to do it =)

 

[Ambient]

If you just need it for storage purposes and not the OS you can get a USB IDE adapter. Newegg.com has one that will adapt both regular HDD's and laptop HDD's to usb 2.0. So for data recovery on a crapped out laptop I would go that route. I do not know if anyone makes a straight adapter for the motherboard, and I would not risk mis-wiring a home made connector.

This one connects to the 2.5 inch drives.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101

 

[Sceadwian]

https://www.datapro.net/products/1920.html

Similar adapters seem to be available on many web sites for similar prices.

 

[raphaelriv]

If you just need it for storage purposes and not the OS you can get a USB IDE adapter. Newegg.com has one that will adapt both regular HDD's and laptop HDD's to usb 2.0. So for data recovery on a crapped out laptop I would go that route. I do not know if anyone makes a straight adapter for the motherboard, and I would not risk mis-wiring a home made connector.

This one connects to the 2.5 inch drives.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101

just for curiosity what do you mean "not the OS" ?

 

[things]

i think "OS" is short for operating system

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

i think "OS" is short for operating system

Yes, OS means 'operating system', however many modern motherboards will happily boot and run the OS from an external HDD connecting via an IDE/USB adaptor - I had one running here a few weeks ago, actually booting into LINUX to run an HD demonstration video off the HDD.

I've since built the computer into a full Windows PC, using an internal HDD, but I've also plugged the LINUX drive in the USB port occasionally, and set the BIOS to boot from USB first, and it still works perfectly.

 

[Styx]

A laptop HD is 2.5" platter and a desktop is 3.5" platter (resulting in the different sizes). there is a limit with 2.5" disk which is 80Gig (although now they have got to the new writing method that has increased to 140Gig). The limit comes due to unable to have too many platters

the interface: the 3.5" drive has a 40pin IDE connector and the 2.5" drive has a 44pin connector. The extra 4pins are for power (the 3.5" has a separate molex header for power).

if you forget about the extra 4pins the pinout is exactly the same between the two drive-types. You can by 40way to 44way IDE converter cables.

With one of these you can put a 2.5" drive into a desktop, HOWEVER you can't really do it the other way around (3.5" into a laptop) due to mechanical constraints.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

With one of these you can put a 2.5" drive into a desktop, HOWEVER you can't really do it the other way around (3.5" into a laptop) due to mechanical constraints.

Big hammer?

 

[Hero999]

You can store the operating system on what you like providing the settings and license will allow you to do so.

Many old machine used to have the operating system on a read only memory whilst others required a boot disk. You can put Linux or BSD on a CD-ROM or even a usb stick (providing your BIOS supports it).

 

[Ambient]

I should have mentioned that I meant "if not for the OS" because I thought he was going to just recover data with it. What I meant was that the OS on the laptop HDD would probably fail to boot up a desktop. I do know that you can boot an OS with USB, I have done it with Linux before to recover some data.

 

[knaaphix]

use an adaptor