How to connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer
To connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer you have to use a Laptop IDE Hard Drive Adapter. You can easily find this adapter on the Internet for $10-$15. This adapter is very handy if you want to scan a laptop hard drive for viruses and spyware using antivirus software installed on a desktop PC, transfer data from a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer or create a ghost image from one hard drive to another. I also use this adapter if a laptop hard drive has failed and I have to recover data from it.
When you connect a laptop IDE adapter, a desktop IDE cable and a laptop hard drive to each other, make sure to connect pin 1 on the hard drive, pin 1 on the desktop IDE cable to pin 1 on the adapter. On a desktop IDE cable the side painted in red goes to pin 1.
On a laptop hard drive there are 2 groups of pins. One group has 43 pins and the other has 4 pins. The pin 1 is located on the side closer to the group of 4 pins.
After you’ve assembled everything together, connect the IDE cable to a desktop PC. Connect it to a free IDE connector on the system board. When you start the computer, you should see the laptop drive in BIOS and in Windows. You can treat this drive as a regular hard drive.
Entry Filed under: Laptop Tips and Tricks
84 Responses to “How to connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer”
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Pages: « 9 8 7 [6] 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
October 5th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Salman,
I did the same mistake a few times before but it didn’t damage the hard drive. Maybe the laptop hard drive was dead before you connected it to the desktop? Does the hard drive start spinning when you connect it to the desktop?
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Hi, I have Dell Latitude D505 dard disk. its connector are same as described above. actually I connected the hard drive by wrong way with ID cable. I mean last pin of hard drive with first pin of IDE cable. when it was not detected I refered on net and found I was wrong. but now it is not detecting either in BIOS or in windows. Did it damage hard drive?.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Roselle,
Maybe the desktop is trying to boot from the laptop hard drive? Make sure the boot order is correct in the BIOS.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:03 am
I think I connected it right but after I boot the desktop it was reading but later on black screen and a cursor is there.
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:32 am
my problem is quite opposite.
i salvaged a toshiba laptop with its hdd missing.
i want to connect my desktop’s regular hdd to it.
i think i need to make an adapter which does that.
does any one know any resource on net which shows how to build one .
thanks in advance .
dr.dan
July 12th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Alan Tuthill,
I don’t think that you can damage the hard drive by connecting it backwards. I’ve done it a few times myself and didn’t have any problem.
Yes, that’s how it was marked on my hard drive. If you have a different pin layout, you still have to match the pin#1 on the hard drive with the hole#1 on the adapter.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Interesting article but I have a couple of questions. First, you state that pin 1 on the laptop drive is closer to the group of 4 pins but on the Toshiba drive from my Compaq it is marked at the other end and I have already tried it that way but the drive will not power up. Have I damaged the drive?
I also took out the middle locating pin from the PC end which I will put back
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:21 pm
EL,
You can connect the desktop hard drive to your laptop via an external USB enclosure. You can do that in order to access the data on the desktop hard drive if the desktop computer is broken.
But you cannot use the desktop hard drive INSTEAD OF the laptop drive.
April 17th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
[…] My previous post explains how to connect a notebook hard drive to a desktop PC via IDE hard drive adapter. […]
April 15th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Is it possible for me to use a desktop hard drive for my laptop drive?