Will a laptop HDD work in a desktop?

[MicrosoftCertTechnician]

I have an old broken Dell laptop, I opened it up and it has a 500GB WD 2.5 HDD 5400RPM. But, it has windows 7 which is installed from Dell (Laptop verison) and some other files, so, I want to format this HDD completely and use it in my build that I am gonna build  soon, so my questions are:

1.Will this HDD work in a desktop once I format it and install fresh windows?

2.How do I format a hard drive?

3. What are some drawbacks of using a 2.5 inch HDD in a desktop?

[iDeFecZx]

I dont see why it wouldnt work.

Right click on the drive in File Explorer and click Format.

It'll be slightly slower than a 7200RPM HDD

[KearneyMC]

1 hour ago, MicrosoftCertTechnician said:

I have an old broken Dell laptop, I opened it up and it has a 500GB WD 2.5 HDD 5400RPM. But, it has windows 7 which is installed from Dell (Laptop verison) and some other files, so, I want to format this HDD completely and use it in my build that I am gonna build  soon, so my questions are:

1.Will this HDD work in a desktop once I format it and install fresh windows?

2.How do I format a hard drive?

3. What are some drawbacks of using a 2.5 inch HDD in a desktop?

It will work. To format it just use windows disk partitioner 

[Tom is a Door]

if it fits, form factor and both has sata support it should

there aren't any draw backs, unless the rpm is slower, and it is but not gonna be huge deal tho free hdd

[vorticalbox]

draw backs are slower due to rotation speed, 5400 vs 7200 RPM. You will likely need a 2.5 to 3.5 bracket adaptor when mounting it in your computer. You will also have to assign the drive a letter in disk manager then just format as you would any drive.

[Godlygamer23]

Technically, using a "laptop hard drive" in a desktop is no different than using an SSD in a desktop. They generally both use the same form factor. As far as formatting the hard drive, this can actually be done within the Windows installer, where you can delete the partition and create a new one from scratch.

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

draw backs are slower due to rotation speed, 5400 vs 7200 RPM. You will likely need a 2.5 to 3.5 bracket adaptor when mounting it in your computer. You will also have to assign the drive a letter in disk manager then just format as you would any drive.

Many cases nowadays have native support for SSDs.

[MachoCyclone]

3 minutes ago, MicrosoftCertTechnician said:

I have an old broken Dell laptop, I opened it up and it has a 500GB WD 2.5 HDD 5400RPM. But, it has windows 7 which is installed from Dell (Laptop verison) and some other files, so, I want to format this HDD completely and use it in my build that I am gonna build  soon, so my questions are:

1.Will this HDD work in a desktop once I format it and install fresh windows?

2.How do I format a hard drive?

3. What are some drawbacks of using a 2.5 inch HDD in a desktop?

1. Yes. Should work just fine.

2. Once you have your new system built and running. Plug up the old HD into the computer. Start the computer and once in Windows, go to "My Conputer" or "This PC" in Win10. Right click on the HD icon and select Format. You then format it to several formats and give the HD a name if you wish. Leave quick format checked and click format. You now have a freshly formatted HD.

3. The drawback will be the 5200rpm speed of the HD. Won't be as quick on writing and reading data.

[vorticalbox]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

Many cases nowadays have native support for SSDs.

I forget that people change whats the normal in cases. I got my switch 810 a number of years haven't really kept up with cases. Still a thing to consider just in case. 

[Jer45]

14 minutes ago, MicrosoftCertTechnician said:

I have an old broken Dell laptop, I opened it up and it has a 500GB WD 2.5 HDD 5400RPM. But, it has windows 7 which is installed from Dell (Laptop verison) and some other files, so, I want to format this HDD completely and use it in my build that I am gonna build  soon, so my questions are:

1.Will this HDD work in a desktop once I format it and install fresh windows?

2.How do I format a hard drive?

3. What are some drawbacks of using a 2.5 inch HDD in a desktop?

as long as its SATA is exactly the same as a desktop hdd

[kaiju_wars]

It will work just fine.  I have done this to my boss's son's desktop.  (used some old parts lying around, I had a spare laptop hard drive).

[Damocles]

It should mount on by screws and usually drive cages have those screw holes for 2.5" drives. One thing to note is that equivalent RPM with different form factors do yield different speeds. As 2.5" 5400 RPM < 3.5" 5400 RPM because of the physical size of the platter. As you know, circles of a larger radius moves more data per rotation as radius is directly proportional to the amount of distance traveled. You may also want to look into short stroking to gain a little extra performance. The best formatting that can be done is by using CMD commands, but you can get away with using the windows explorer(Windows key+E)> Right click drive> Format> Choose whatever you need (NTFS+Default+ Quick Format).

[Damocles]

By CMD commands, you may notice that formatting may not clean up the old EFI boot partitions on the drive. Go to CMD as admin, type in BCDedit>list vol> sel vol X (where X is the drive listed you want to format)> clean. THIS WILL DELETE EVERYTHING INCLUDING MBR/EFI AND ANY FILES/PARTITIONS/EVERYTHING (Except the ROM/firmware) ON THE DRIVE so be extra careful that you selected the correct drive. Now you have a blank drive ready for a new windows install.

[vandenbergmp]

to my knowledge, the only thing that matters is the type of power connector. If it is from the last 10 years it is all pretty much plug and play. I used a "desktop" ssd in a laptop and it worked just fine. vice versa I took the 2.5" HDD out of the laptop and tried to format it with a desktop, worked just fine. 

[glitchmaster0001]

it will work both have the sata interface. also you can use some double side tape to ghetto mount it if you dont want to buy a bracket