Connecting a laptop hard drive to a PC. How to connect a hard drive from a computer to a laptop

It’s not uncommon for a laptop to break down to be completely functional. HDD. I don’t want to throw it away at all, so users are often interested in how to connect a hard drive from a laptop to a computer. In this short article we will talk about how you can solve this problem.

Connecting a hard drive from a laptop to a computer using SATA

Connecting a hard drive from a laptop to a computer using USB

If the connection method described above hard drive from laptop to computer seems too complicated for you, or you want to be able to quickly disconnect such a hard drive, then you can. This can be implemented in several ways.

Method No. 1. Adapter from SATA to USB.

The simplest option is a small compact adapter from to 3.0. On one side, such an adapter has a SATA interface, with which it connects to the hard drive, and on the other side, a USB 3.0 cable that connects to the computer.

Method number 2. Pocket for 2.5 inch disks.

A pocket for 2.5-inch drives is something like a case into which a 2.5-inch hard drive is installed. Inside this case there is a SATA connector to which a hard drive from a laptop is connected, and outside there is a USB cable for connecting to a computer.

Method No. 3. A docking station that supports laptop hard drives.

You can also use a hard drive docking station. The docking station is small device, which connects to a computer via USB and into which you can install hard drives.

A docking station is probably the most expensive way to connect hard drives from a laptop to a computer. Since models supporting 2.5-inch drives are rare and cost above average.

Imagine the situation: you are doing urgent work on your laptop and suddenly... the laptop turns off and won’t turn on again. There are only a few hours left before the work is due, and the repair of the capricious device does not promise to be quick. What to do?

The main thing is not to panic! You can still do everything if you have a desktop PC. It is enough to have a screwdriver on hand and know the secret of how to connect a hard drive from a laptop to a computer. This is what we will talk about now.

Briefly about the drives that are found on laptops

On modern laptops there are not only classic HDDs, but also . Both of them may have different, incompatible connection interfaces.

SATA

The most common interface for both hard and solid state drives is called “SATA”. It is represented by a 7-pin data connector and a 15-pin connector for power connection.

The SATA interface is most often found among drives for desktop computers; any modern motherboard supports it (if you do not take into account specialized and older devices). It is completely identical to the SATA standard, which is used in laptops. More precisely, this is a single standard.

IDE (PATA)

Drives with an IDE (PATA) interface today can only be found on very old devices – those released more than 10 years ago. Their distinctive feature– a long 40-pin connector for a data cable and a 4-pin power port.

The latest generation desktop motherboards no longer support the IDE (PATA) interface. To connect an IDE drive to a computer that only supports SATA, you will need an adapter.

mSATA

The latest generation of miniature drives are produced in the mSATA format. The shape of the mSATA connector is very similar to mini PCI-E, but electrically they are incompatible.

You can connect an mSATA device to most desktop motherboards only through an adapter, since this interface is rarely found on them.

M.2

M.2 SSDs are even more compact than mSATA and are used mainly on ultrabooks. They are produced with three types of connectors, which differ from each other in the location of the key cutout:

Type B has a cutout towards the left edge. The part that is to the left of the key holds 6 contacts.
Type M has a cutout closer to the right edge. The part that is located to the right of the cutout holds 5 contacts.
Type B&M has both keys.

SSDs with slots B and M can only be connected to their slot type, while B&M can be connected to both.

M.2 slots are still very rare on desktop motherboards.

Connecting a HDD from a laptop to the same type of interface on a PC

Everything is simpler here. To connect a SATA drive from a laptop to a similar interface on the motherboard of a desktop PC, you will need a SATA data cable (in the picture on the right) and a suitable connector on the power supply cable. If the latter is not available, buy a Molex-SATA adapter at a computer store (in the picture on the left).

The other end of the SATA cable is connected to the port on motherboard. The port speed (3 Gb/s, 6 Gb/s) does not matter in terms of compatibility.

To connect an IDE(PATA) drive to the IDE port on the motherboard you will need a wide 40-pin cable, a Molex power cable + an IDE 3.5-2.5 adapter.

To prevent the computer from trying to boot from a “non-native” drive, the latter must be switched to the “slave” position. This is done using jumpers (jammers) on the IDE drive contacts, which are located next to the power port. Information about the location of the jumper in the “slave” position can be found on the disk itself or in its manual on the manufacturer’s website.

When the jumper is set to the “cable select” position, the master and slave media are determined by the cable. In this case, the “slave” disk must be connected to the block in the middle of the cable (it is white in the picture).

mSATA and M.2 drives can simply be inserted into the appropriate slot on the motherboard.

Connecting a different type of drive

To connect a drive that is not supported to your computer motherboard, you will need an adapter adapter. For example:

IDE-SATA (SATA-IDE).

SATA-USB.

mSATA-USB.

M.2-USB-SATA.

IDE-USB, mSATA-SATA, M.2-SATA, etc.

There are many types of adapters, but not all of them are easy to find on sale.

How to place a small mobile HDD in a system unit

Another problem that often puzzles users is how to place the HDD from a laptop inside a desktop computer. Here, too, several options are allowed:

Installation in a 2.5" basket. Many computer cases of the latest generation have SSD cages where you can insert a 2.5-inch HDD from a laptop.

Using a 3.5”-2.5” adapter The mobile drive is placed inside the adapter, fixed, then inserted all together into a cage for a standard 3.5” hard drive and screwed in place. There are adapters for more compact media – 1.8”.

Location of the laptop disk at the bottom system unit. It is advisable to place a mouse pad or a layer of rubber underneath the HDD to reduce vibration. This method is only suitable for short-term connection; you should not work this way constantly.

And of course, before installing the mobile HDD inside the system unit, do not forget to turn off the power to the computer. When connecting via external ports (USB, eSATA), this is not necessary.

The situation when you need to connect a laptop hard drive to a computer usually arises in two cases:

it is necessary to copy a large amount of data from the hard drive;
The laptop has failed, so you need to extract information from it.

In the first case, it is not necessary to disassemble the laptop and remove the hard drive; the most reasonable solution would be to use a special cable, called a patch cord, to connect the laptop to the computer and transfer data.

The only nuance of this connection is the fact that in order to transfer data between a computer and a laptop, you need to link both devices to a home group through the operating system settings.

To implement the second option, you cannot do without first disassembling the laptop and disconnecting the hard drive. How to do this depends primarily on the model of the laptop you are using, but you can still identify general steps.

The process of removing the hard drive from a laptop:

turn off the device, disconnect the power cable and remove the battery;
turn the laptop over and inspect the bottom; perhaps the hard drive is accessed through a special compartment, which prevents removal of the entire bottom part;
unscrew the screws holding the compartment, if there is one (otherwise, you need to remove all the fasteners holding the bottom of the structure);
Pull the hard drive out of the connector in the exact opposite direction and pull it out.

Connecting the hard drive directly to the computer motherboard

This is the first option for connecting a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer. To implement it you will need to do the following:

turn off the computer and disconnect the power cable from the electrical outlet;
remove the side wall of the system unit;
Using a SATA cable, connect the hard drive to the system board;
connect the cable from the power supply to the hard drive;
securely fix the hard drive, screw on the cover and turn on the computer.

After connecting in this way, the hard drive will appear in the system as a local disk.

If you do not have spare SATA cables to connect your hard drive, you can temporarily remove similar ones from your drive.

If you want to install a laptop hard drive into the system unit and use it constantly, you need to secure the hard drive using special slides.

Slides that allow you to secure a 2.5-inch hard drive into a 3.5-inch system unit bay.

Connecting a hard drive through special devices

This method is simpler compared to the option outlined above, since it does not require disassembling a desktop computer.

Using a SATA to USB adapter

There are many varieties of such adapters. Typically, these devices have several connectors that can be used to connect both SATA and IDE drives.

Using a hard drive enclosure

On sale you can find a special device that allows you to turn any laptop hard drive into a full-fledged external hard drive. Usually such a device is called a box (from the English word Box, which means box). A box is a small container into which a hard drive is inserted. The box is connected to the computer via a USB connector.

When purchasing a box, you should consider the physical size of the hard drive that you want to connect to it. There are two types of boxes:

For hard drives size 2.5 inches;
for 3.5-inch hard drives.

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Good day everyone.

A fairly typical task: transfer a large number of files from a computer’s hard drive to a laptop’s hard drive (or, in general, you just have an old drive from your PC and you want to use it for storage) different files, so that on a laptop HDD, as a rule, has less capacity in volume).

In both cases, you will need to connect the hard drive to the laptop. This article is just about this; let’s look at one of the simplest and most universal options.

Question No. 1: how to remove a hard drive from a computer (IDE and SATA)

It is logical that before connecting the disk to another device, it must be removed from the PC system unit ( The fact is that depending on the interface for connecting your drive (IDE or SATA), the boxes that will be required for connection will differ. More on this later in the article...).

Rice. 1. Hard drive 2.0 TB, WD Green.

Therefore, in order not to guess what kind of disk you have, it is best to first remove it from the system unit and look at its interface.

As a rule, there are no problems with extracting large ones:

First, turn off the computer completely, including unplugging the plug;
open the side cover of the system unit;
remove from the hard drive all the plugs that are connected to it;
unscrew the fastening screws and remove the disk (as a rule, it goes on a slide).

The process itself is quite easy and fast. Then take a close look at the connection interface (see Figure 2). Nowadays, most modern drives are connected via SATA (a modern interface that provides high data transfer speeds). If your drive is old, it is quite possible that it will have an IDE interface.

Another important point...

Computers usually have “large” 3.5-inch disks (see Fig. 2.1), but laptops have smaller disks - 2.5 inches (1 inch is 2.54 cm). The numbers 2.5 and 3.5 are used to denote form factors and indicate the width of the HDD case in inches.

The height of all modern 3.5 hard drives is 25 mm; this is called "half-height" compared to much older drives. Manufacturers use this height to accommodate between one and five wafers. In 2.5 hard drives, everything is different: the original height of 12.5 mm has been replaced by 9.5 mm, which includes up to three plates (thinner drives are also now available). The 9.5mm height has actually become the standard for most laptops, but some companies sometimes still produce 12.5mm hard disks based on three plates.

Rice. 2.1. Form factor. 2.5-inch drive - top (laptops, netbooks); 3.5 inches - bottom (PC).

Connecting the drive to the laptop

For direct connection you will need a special BOX (box, or translated from English as “box”). These boxes can be varied:

3.5 IDE -> USB 2.0 - means that this box is for a 3.5-inch drive (and these are the ones found in PCs) with an IDE interface for connecting to USB port 2.0 (transfer speed (actual) no more than 20-35 Mb/s);
3.5 IDE -> USB 3.0 - the same, only the transfer speed will be higher;
3.5 SATA -> USB 2.0 (similar, the difference is in the interface);
3.5 SATA -> USB 3.0, etc.

This box is a rectangular box, slightly larger than the size of the disc itself. This box usually opens from the back and the HDD is inserted directly into it (see Fig. 3).

Actually, after this you need to connect power (adapter) to this box and connect it via USB cable to your laptop (or to a TV, for example, see Fig. 4).

If the disk and box are working, then in “ my computer"you will have another disk that you can work with like a regular hard drive (format, copy, delete, etc.)

If suddenly the disk is not visible in my computer...

In this case, 2 steps may be required.

1) Check if there are drivers for your box. As a rule, Windows installs them itself, but if the box is not standard, then there may be problems...

To get started, run device Manager and see if there are drivers for your device, if there are any yellow exclamation marks anywhere ( as in fig. 5). I also recommend that you check your computer with one of the utilities for auto-updating drivers: .

Rice. 5. Problem with the driver... (To open the device manager, go to the panel Windows management and use the search).

2) Go to disk management on Windows ( to go there, in Windows 10 just right-click on START) and check if there is a connected HDD there. If it is, then most likely for it to become visible - it needs to change the letter and format it. By the way, I have a separate article on this subject: (I recommend reading it).

Rice. 6. Disk management. Even those drives that are not visible in Explorer and “My Computer” are visible here.

Hi all. If you need to connect a hard drive from a computer to a laptop, then I will now show you how easy it can be done.

For example, I urgently need to send 500 gigabytes of data from computer to laptop. Agree, to transfer all this using a flash drive, even 64 gigabytes, we will still need a ton of time. It is better to directly connect the hard drive to the laptop and transfer all the data at once.

Remove the hard drive from the computer

First of all, prepare your hard drive. If it is still inserted into the computer, then unscrew the cover of the system unit, disconnect the 2 cables from the drive and remove it from the compartment.

Prepare the SATA – USB cable

To connect a hard drive from a computer to a laptop, we need this cable and power:

I bought this cable on Aliexpress. If necessary, here is the link where I bought it: http://ali.pub/2057d2.

Be careful, order exactly this cable with additional food, because if you order without power, it will not work with a large disk from a computer. The cable without power is designed to work with small drives from a laptop!

Connect the drive to the laptop

We connect one end of the cable to the disk, and insert the USB into the laptop. Network adapter plug into the socket.

Check functionality

After connecting, wait a few seconds for it to install required driver, then, reboot the laptop and after that go to the Computer section and check the disk. Here it also appeared divided into several sections, as it was on my computer:

It is worth understanding that in this way you can connect the drive not only to a laptop, but also to a computer, for example, when you don’t want to open the lid of the system unit.

Use as needed. Bye everyone!