If your laptop goes belly up but the hard drive is still good ...

What type of external hard drive enclosure would be used for a laptop hard drive? Do laptop hard drives use a different size SATA interface than desktop hard drives? If I'm choosing an external hard drive enclosure from Newegg, do I need to choose one that's specifically meant for laptop hard drives? Should I choose a 2.5" enclosure or does it not matter?

No it hasn't happened yet, but I'm putting a lot of school-related stuff on my laptop, and if it pooped out because of the video card or the screen or whatever, I'd like a fast way of accessing the stuff on the hard drive from my old desktop. So I'd like to have the enclosure handy.

 

All you need to make sure of is that the enclosure will fit your drives. Chances are you laptop has a 2.5 SATA drive, but it may be IDE (I sill have 2 laptops with IDE drives). So double-check before purchasing or simply buy a 2.5 enclosure that has both hookups.

I personally own this enclosure:
http://www.buy.com/prod/cms-product...ge-enclosure-1-x-2-5/q/loc/101/204450319.html

It's a great product, a little more than others, but very handy as it does not require an external power-source and it supports both IDE & SATA.

 

You won't be able to hook it up directly to a desktop SATA cable, but you can get an adapter. A few more convenient solution would be to throw it in an external 2.5 in enclosure.

 

Yes you will....

If it's a SATA laptop drive, it's power and data connections are IDENTICAL to those of a desktop! So if your desktop has SATA, then just plug it into your desktop like a normal hard drive.

If it's IDE, you'll need either an enclosure or an adapter. Personally, I'd opt for hooking it up to a desktop via a 40 to 44 pin adapter.

 

The desktop is old and has an IDE hard drive.
The laptops have SATA drives (1720 and M1330).
I'm asking about enclosures, as I'd like to be able to connect the laptop hard drive to the old computer via USB.
I'm considering this enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182140

Maybe there is a better option though?

 

That's an excellent option, as long as you do not ever foresee needing to use it for a 2.5 IDE drive.

 

Yeah that's what you would need. 2.5 drives are nice because they don't need extra power cables.

 

Not universally true, but often is the case. The selected is powered by USB alone, so all is well.

 

Uhh...no, it won't. Desktop SATA connectors have the L-shaped plugs. Laptops are straight line.

There are converters, but an enclosure is better.

 

FWIW, I bought this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817348021

Has internal connections for both SATA and IDE drives, and both USB and eSATA external connectors. A steal at $20.

 

Uhhh... yes it will. Please explain to me how I achieve this very feat multiple times each week. You couldn't use a desktop drive in a laptop maybe, but you can use a laptop drive in a desktop! Need I take pictures? I accept that this is not the right thing to do in this case, but it IS 100% possible and compatible.




EDIT: I'm just feeling so ****ty today, and I feel like no one wants to listen to what I have to say regardless of how right I am. I am right about this, and I am giving you proof, not in form of a link but in form of "okay well I just did it, now tell me it's impossible." I am not going to agree to disagree; you are going to admit you are wrong in this case (doesn't mean anything about your reputability - everyone makes mistakes.) OR, I am just going to stop helping people on this forum and just browse the BST like I used to.

Maybe this is a little over the edge, and I am acting a little belligerent lately but I honestly feel very under appreciated. And maybe that's dumb of me, but it's not just here at NBR, it's at work and I am just taking it out here.

But here you have it, it's possible. And look, the drive has an L shaped connector. Sorry Greg, a straight line SATA connector is an eSATA connector, not a laptop SATA connector.

Pictures of the connectors


Pictures of a SATA cable plugged in


Picture of the drive hooked up to my desktop. There is a reason I have those bays open like that with cables right there. You called it! Just for this type of thing


Scan of my drive:


Drive in device manager, same model number. Right next to a desktop drive.



And sorry for hijacking your thread, it looks like you've gotten a good suggestion already (the rosewill is reviewed extremely well, especially for the price and should do you nicely.)

 

I'll. Be. Darned.

You're right.

Darn...I'm spoiled by my 1.8" IDE drive.

Foo.

 

Thank you for taking time to post the pictures, Hep!

 

Thanks for the positive response. I'm feeling a bit better now.

If I had this argument with a customer at work, then showed him all this, he would probably still say I am wrong. Yeah? Then fix your own computer you obviously know more than me.

Heh, sorry for venting all that stress here.

 

You should tick people off more often on these hardware related issues so more people will open up their computers and take pictures of the insides or motivate them to post up guides most of us don't feel like doing.

 

Nah, understand that it was not Greg who pissed me off, he was more the straw that broke the camel's back. It seems no one wants to listen to someone with experience (I guess I don't blame them, it's just the internet in this case) but I work a computer repair tech and I will have people come into my store, ask for help, and then tell me I am wrong. I am not always right, but the customer is almost NEVER right in these cases, it's usually I'm mistaken, they're completely off, and my boss goes "oh it's _____". It's so frustrating for someone to come in and say "I don't really know anything about computers" yet 1 day later they'll tell me "you did your job wrong" because those people forgot to plug in their keyboard or took out the anti virus. This happens constantly and it really just gets to you ;_;

As for guides... I'd be happy to write guides. I wrote the guide for improving M1330 cooling and I'd be more than happy to write others. I just don't know what information would be useful for people in the form of a guide. If you have a suggestion or request, PM me. My range of knowledge is very broad

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. This kind of a thing happens really often though even amongst people who arn't 100% clueless too. Though you just got to think of it as "it's their loss", they will come crying back to you once they realize your right or they trip up following their own train of thought.

Yeah, about the guides, thats one of the reasons I said that. Your guide on Cooling was very well done. It would be nice if more people are as innovative and as good as you to create guides such as yours. No one probably ever thought about doing something like that until you brought it up, but its for the better. If there are mods like yours or of similar creative innovation for the M1530, I'd love to try it.

Thanks for your contributions! You rule!

 

My friend is going to be selling a very very low spec'd XPS M1530 in a few months. The 1.5GHz C2D, 1GB of PC2 5300, 80GB 5400RPM drive, 8400M GS. Can the card in the M1530 be upgraded from an 8400 to an 8600? If so I might pick it up for cheap, but until then, I don't have an XPS M1530 to practice on.

I really enjoy pulling apart hardware and seeing where I can make improvements, but I can't afford too much hardware to do so with
Most of my toys are free-bees (or discount-bees)

In the meantime, if anyone had other ideas for tutorials they wanted, I know dual booting is done so that's not worth much, I dunno if there is an nLite or a data recovery guide, like I said, I've got a lot of knowledge I'm willing to share, just need someone to ask for it.

 

Unfortunately no. Its a graphics chip that is soldered directly onto the motherboard so it cannot be upgraded unfortunately. I wish they made it more modular so you could.

Yeah, I don't do it often. I only take things apart typically if they are really really old. My school was giving away old computer parts they weren't using so I've got about 7 hard drives that are 8GB in capacity. Junk, but nice to have nonetheless. Plus its the neodymium magnets inside of them that are fun to play with anyways.

 

Man I love being a geek...b/c I know EXACTLY what you're talking about

 

What's worse is I used to work at a school before I worked at this repair shop... so my door hinges have random magnets stuck on them. It's the only place I can put them and feel safe that I'm not destroying some other electronics.


Yeah, figured the M1530 was a on mobo chip, just like the M1330. Ohhh wellll.