Connect the hard drive from the netbook to the computer. How to connect a hard drive from a computer to a laptop. How to place a small mobile HDD in the system unit

If your laptop is beyond recovery, and the hard drive from it is intact, then you can transfer information from it to a regular stationary PC. To do this, you need to know how to connect a laptop hard drive to. First of all, you need to determine its type, and then decide whether it will be used on your stationary system permanently or act as a temporary option. Based on this, there are different ways to connect, we will talk about them in order.

What storage media (hard drives) are used in laptops?

SSD M2

Modern laptops are assembled with two types of drives for information - HDD and SSD. The former are similar to standard PC hard drives, only smaller in size, while the latter look like a small board. Most often in laptops there are the following types of drives:

IDE (PATA) - used on laptops built over 10 years ago. Its main difference is bulkiness and a long connector for a data exchange cable. Power is connected through a 4-pin pad. It is now very difficult to find a motherboard that supports the IDE interface, so to connect such a drive you need to use an adapter for SATA.
SATA is the most popular interface. A pad with 7 pins is used for power connection, and for data transfer it is slightly longer with 15 tracks. Modern motherboards in most cases support this interface, so you can use such an HDD as a second one, it will not be difficult to connect it on an ongoing basis.
mSATA are miniature SSDs used on modern laptops. Its connector is similar to mini PCI -e , but they are not power compatible. In most cases, such a hard drive will be connected to a stationary device only with the help of an adapter for the motherboard, since desktops began to equip such memory devices relatively recently. They have become more and more common lately, so it is worth learning how such storage can be used.
M 2 is another miniature SSD used in ultrabooks. There are three types of connection of such disks. They are distinguished by the notch on the contact pad:
- B - the cutout is located on the left edge, there are 6 contacts near the small platform;
- M - the cutout is located on the right, the small platform has 5 contacts;
- B&M is a universal version with two notches.

The latter type of SSD can be used for any ultrabook motherboard connector, but it can be connected to a stationary PC via an adapter. There are no slots for the M2 interface on motherboards for desktop systems.

The type of disk connection is selected based on its interface. It also affects whether the media is used permanently or temporarily. It is recommended to select SATA or PATA as permanent storage. The rest of the options are only suitable for temporary file transfers.

How to fit a laptop hard drive inside a desktop case?

If you will connect the HDD as a second one, then you need to correctly find a place for it inside the case. Remove the side cover and look inside. Find one of the suitable HDD placement options:

Install it in a 2.5” basket. It is located in the front compartment of the case, in its middle part.
Use a 2.5" drive adapter to fit a standard 3.5" drive cage. Inside the case, the adapter is fastened with screws that prevent damage to the disk from vibration. Now there are adapters for more modern compact media 1.8”.
If your PC does not have baskets for disks (dismantled or not provided for by the design), then you can put the media on the bottom of the system unit. But first place a rubber mat under the HDD, for example, part of the old one from a computer mouse. This method is not suitable for permanent use, so after a while you will need to assemble a standard basket.

Let's figure out how to connect a second laptop hard drive to a computer if it has a compact size, that is, it is a small plate. SSDs are connected to the motherboard through adapters, which most often have a USB interface. This type of connection allows you to use additional storage only when necessary, turning it into a mobile carrier. On the one hand, such use is an absolute advantage of hard drives, and on the other hand, it is a big drawback, if you decide to save a program on it and then forget to connect the media, then you will not be able to start it, an error will occur.

Before connecting any storage medium to the motherboard, you must turn off the power to the PC. If you are using e-SATA or USB mobile ports that do not require disassembly of the case, then the PC does not need to be powered down.

Connecting an HDD with the same interface as a PC

SATA connector

Before connecting a hard drive to a computer, decide how you will use it - permanently or temporarily. On an ongoing basis, SATA and IDE are connected inside the case. This is the most difficult option for installing additional storage, you need to know the design of the motherboard and understand where to connect the wires.

Prepare two cables for the hard drive - wide and thin. The data transfer takes place through thin. If you have an outdated version of the motherboard, then use the Molex to SATA adapter. Plug one end of the thin cable into the corresponding slot on the HDD, and place the other on the motherboard. Finding the right socket for it is not difficult: usually there are 3-4 rectangular contact pads in a row, next to which there is an inscription SATA and speed indicators 3 Gb / s, 6 Gb / s. Choose any of them, the data transfer rate does not affect compatibility.
An older hard drive is connected via a power cable and a 40-pin IDE cable. It also requires Molex adapters and adapters. An interesting feature of this disk is that it can be made a slave in advance, that is, the PC will not boot from it, but simply display information. This is done using jumpers on one of the pads. It is necessary to set jumpers on certain pins to instruct the PC to read the information correctly. You can also set the jumpers so that the master and slave drives are determined by the cable. In this case, the disk that will be connected to the middle contact plug will not participate in the boot of a stationary computer.

Top IDE, bottom SATA

Other variants of hard drives can be connected to a PC only through adapters. If you have a modern motherboard, then it may have additional connectors for SSD and M 2. In this case, the connection is simple, just place the storage die in a slot suitable for it.

To permanently install a hard drive, you can use a SATA to IDE adapter. It allows you to establish an older storage connection to the motherboard, as well as establish a reverse connection. You will be able to read information from this media, as well as use it constantly.

What hard drives can be connected via adapters to the motherboard?

There is another class of adapters - USB adapters. They turn an SSD or HDD into a regular flash drive. The first such adapters appeared for SATA drives, they are also called external hard drives. They were boxes inside which a hard drive was mounted. It connects to the PC with a cable. Now some external hard drives work in the same way. If you have such a device, you can disassemble the case and replace the HDD used there with a variant from your laptop. This is enough to read the information or drop the files you need for remote storage. This method also checks the performance of disks from laptops.

You can also find adapters in computer stores:

mSATA - USB
mSATA-USB
You can also find adapters that allow you to connect modern SSDs to SATA. With each passing day, computer parts manufacturers are becoming more inventive, they are helping to find a solution for those who have computers of an old configuration. This is very important for many users, because office and home systems are often very outdated, and HDDs with old interfaces are gradually disappearing from sale.
Now you know how to connect a hard drive from a laptop to a computer. Any questions you can ask them in the comments, as well as share useful information and your stories there. Invite friends to discuss.

Hello, friends.

Do you know how to connect a hard drive from a laptop to a computer? In fact, it is easy and today you will see it. The main thing at the back of the laptop is to find the compartment where the hard drive is located and do simple steps. Now I'll show you everything!

So, to connect a hard drive from a laptop to a PC, we need to follow 2 steps:

1. Remove the drive from the laptop
2. Insert it into the computer and connect

Let's get to the first step. Flip the laptop over take out the battery. This is an important point, so don't forget to do it. Next, we need to find the cover behind which the hard drive is hidden and unscrew a couple of screws. Usually on this cover there is an inscription HDD.

If there are several covers, but there are no inscriptions, then you will have to open each one and see exactly where the disk is. The main thing you remember is where you unscrew the bolts from, in some cases they differ in size and you need them put in their place. Otherwise, then it will be like mine - the whole laptop is completely without screws.

We move the cover aside and we see a small hard drive. Here it is also fastened with screws and they need to be unscrewed.

Fine. We removed the hard drive from the laptop. Now you need to connect it to your computer.

We pass to the computer. Unscrew the 2 screws on the back of the system unit and slide the cover to the side.

The hard drive bays are located in the lower right corner. Now you already have at least one disk there. We will install the second one nearby.

To connect a hard drive from a laptop to a computer, we need two cables:.

There are corresponding connectors on the disk for these cables:

Connecting!

The reverse sides of these cables look similar. The SATA interface must be inserted into the connector on the motherboard. It is usually located at the bottom and there you will already have the first disk connected. We insert the wire into the adjacent connector.

And the second SATA wire is connected to the power supply. We look at the wires that depart from the power supply and find the connector we need. All interfaces are unique, so you will not be able to connect the wrong one, or the wrong side.

As you can see, a laptop hard drive is smaller than a standard computer drive. This means that by default it cannot be bolted to the system unit. Of course, if you inserted the disc for a short time, for example, to transfer important files to your computer, then you can simply put it neatly on some shelf.

Otherwise, if you are for permanent use, then you will need to take care of buying a special adapter, using which you can bolt the disk into a special compartment. Thus, due to the vibrations that are inherent in these types of discs, it will not break prematurely.

Good luck connecting drives!

It happens that after replacing the hard drive on a laptop or in the event of a failure of the latter, it becomes necessary to connect the freed drive to a desktop computer. This can be done in two different ways, and we will talk about each of them today.

Portable and desktop computers use drives of different form factors - 2.5 (or, much less often, 1.8) and 3.5 inches, respectively. It is the difference in size, as well as, in much more rare cases, the interfaces used (SATA or IDE) that determine how exactly the connection can be made. In addition, the disk from the laptop can not only be installed inside the PC, but also connected to it in one of the external connectors. Each of the cases we have identified has its own nuances, which we will discuss in more detail later.

Note: If you need to connect a disk from a laptop to a computer solely for the transfer of information, check out the article below. You can do this without removing the drive by linking the devices using one of the available methods.

Removing a drive from a laptop

Of course, the first step is to remove the hard drive from the laptop. In many models, it is located in a separate compartment, to open which it is enough to unscrew one screw on the case, but much more often you need to remove the entire lower part. Earlier we talked about how portable computers from different manufacturers are disassembled, so we will not dwell on this topic in this article. If you have any difficulties or questions, just read the article provided at the link below.

More:

Option 1: Installation

In the event that you want to install a hard drive from a laptop into your PC, replacing the old one with it or making it an additional drive, you need to get the following tools and accessories:

Crosshead screwdriver;
Tray (sled) for installing a 2.5 ”or 1.8” disk (depending on the form factor of the connected device) in a standard 3.5” cell for computers;
SATA cable;
Loose power cable coming from the power supply.

Note: If the drives are connected to the PC using the outdated IDE standard, and the laptop used SATA, you will additionally need to purchase a SATA-IDE adapter and connect it to the “smaller” drive.

Remove both side covers of the system unit. Most often they are fixed on a couple of screws located on the back panel. Having unscrewed them, just pull the “walls” towards you.

If you are changing from one drive to another, first disconnect the power and connection cables from the "old" one, and then unscrew the four screws - two on each (side) side of the cell, and carefully remove it from its tray. If you plan to install the drive as a second storage device, simply skip this step and move on to the next one.
Using the standard screws that come with the sled, secure the drive removed from the laptop to the inner sides of this adapter tray. Be sure to consider the location - the connectors for connecting cables should be directed inside the system unit.

Now you need to fix the tray with the disk in the cell of the system unit intended for it. In fact, you need to perform the reverse procedure of removing the computer drive, that is, fasten it with the supplied screws on both sides.
Take a SATA cable and connect one end of it to a free connector on the motherboard,

and the second - to a similar one on the hard drive you are installing. It is necessary to connect the power cable coming from the PSU to the second connector of the device.

Note: If the drives are connected to the PC via the IDE interface, use the adapter designed for it to a more modern SATA - it connects to the corresponding connector on the hard drive from the laptop.
Reassemble the case by screwing both side covers back on and turn on the computer. In most cases, the new drive will be immediately active and ready for use. If with its display in the tool "Disk Management" and/or setup problems, please see the article below.

Option 2: External storage

Conclusion

Now you know how to connect a drive from a laptop to a computer, regardless of whether you plan to use it as an internal or external drive.

The stationary computer is outdated or out of order, but the hard drive with numerous files accumulated over the years, fortunately for its owner, remained operational. There is a laptop available, which means that it makes no sense to resort to upgrading an old computer and “bring it to its senses”. Let's connect a hard drive to the laptop, which in computer language is the internal hard drive HDD, and transfer all the necessary information from it.

Visit a specialized computer equipment store, where, after consulting with a manager, decide on the choice of an adapter device that will help connect a hard drive to a laptop. If you do not have extra funds, then use the Internet to find where to buy a hand-held adapter in your region. Be economical and opt for a fairly cheap multifunctional adapter - a "SATA" cable in other words. When buying, make sure that the kit contains: two cords (a power adapter that connects to the mains and a USB cable), a software disk that will be needed if an old operating system is installed on the laptop, instructions and the adapter itself - such a nice little thing with connectors. For long-term use of a hard drive, purchase a modern USB 3.0 IDE to SATA adapter cable, which will easily allow you to connect the hard drive to your laptop in a matter of seconds. The kit also comes with all the necessary cords and user manual.

Connect the purchased adapter to your laptop via the USB contact interface and do not try to open the case of your portable device. Also connect the hard drive to a device that is equipped with a special connector. If you need to install drivers, then be sure to use the disk from the kit or update the driver via the Internet. Now your hard drive will work like a regular flash drive. Unlike hard drives 3.5 inches wide and above, a 2.5-inch hard drive with an optimized capacity attached to the adapter does not require additional connection to the electrical network using the power supply included in the product assembly. You will find out the parameters of the HDD when you pick it up. The sticker contains all the necessary characteristics.

Choose an adapter seriously if you want to use an old hard drive as an external drive. Do not forget to take the hard drive with you when you go to the computer store to get an adapter. The seller may offer you to test the adapter in operation right there by selecting the appropriate cable.

There are four ways to connect a second hard drive to a laptop.

1. The easiest option is when the laptop has a second seat for a hard drive. Unfortunately, this option is very rare - just a few models. If your laptop has such an opportunity, you can find out about it from the instructions - and connecting a second disk will not be difficult.

2. There are special adapters designed to connect a hard drive to a laptop, for example: SATA-IDE, SATA-USB, IDE-USB.

They can be used to connect a 3.5 "(or 2.5") hard drive from a PC to a laptop - most often via a USB interface. However, due to the versatility of such a solution, such an adapter cannot be called very convenient - for example, power for the HDD should be connected with a separate wire .

3. The third way is to use, which connects the hard drive to a laptop via a USB port.

It is enough to insert a hard drive into this container (of course, it is important that the dimensions and connectors of the pocket and the hard drive match) and connect it to the laptop's USB port. The hard drive is recognized by the operating system as a removable drive, after which you can start working with it. They exist for both 2.5" hard drives and 3.5" hard drives.

4. You can simply use by connecting via USB 2.0 or Hi-Speed USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. An added bonus is the external hard drive's outer shell, which can be shock or splash resistant, allowing you to use a second hard drive without worry. In addition, there are protected versions of external drives - with hardware password protection.

There is an alternative way to connect a second hard drive instead of the built-in DVD drive, but few laptops support it. In this case, you will need to disassemble the laptop, remove the DVD drive and replace it with an adapter with the necessary SATA cable. Most often, MacBook laptops from 2008-2012 are subject to such modification. Since the built-in DVD-ROM is less and less common in laptops, this method is losing its relevance.