hard drive Putting a Laptop HDD inside a Desktop

[Dixel]

Hey fellas, first post here asking an actual question.

 

CAN I put my laptop's HDD into my desktop build and if yes, HOW can I do so?

 

I have 2 laptop one DELL and one HP. Both are very old at this point (7yo and 9yo). Just recently upgraded out of the HP. The HP boots up fine and works. But, the DELL will NOT boot at all (though I can hear some tiny mechanical noise from the outside). 

 

If the answer is yes, how can I safely extract these hard drives and put it in my desktop without having to go through too much hassle. I have valuable photos, videos and memories saved on their which I would GREATLY appreciate if I could recover them. 

 

I have looked into this with Youtube tutorials but I'm getting very mixed results and it has left me confused. 

 

[Ryker Robb]

2 minutes ago, Dixel said:

CAN I put my laptop's HDD into my desktop build and if yes, HOW can I do so?

Yes, they all use the same connectors, the only difference is the form factor. Just plug them in like any other drive, and use disk management to reformat them.

[Dixel]

3 minutes ago, Ryker Robb said:

Yes, they all use the same connectors, the only difference is the form factor. Just plug them in like any other drive, and use disk management to reformat them.

Will reformatting them cause me to loose any data?

Also can I even mount them to my case at all do I just have them sitting at the bottom without it being attached to anything.

[Ryker Robb]

5 minutes ago, Dixel said:

If the answer is yes, how can I safely extract these hard drives and put it in my desktop without having to go through too much hassle. I have valuable photos, videos and memories saved on their which I would GREATLY appreciate if I could recover them. 

If there is anything on the drives you want to keep, i would first back them up from the laptop, as that would be the easiest. If not, you could try accessing them from the desktop pc, although i've had mixed results doing this.

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Will reformatting them cause me to loose any data?

Also can I even mount them to my case at all do I just have them sitting at the bottom without it being attached to anything.

Reformatting them will cause data loss, yes.

What case are you using?

[Dixel]

1 minute ago, Ryker Robb said:

If there is anything on the drives you want to keep, i would first back them up from the laptop, as that would be the easiest. If not, you could try accessing them from the desktop pc, although i've had mixed results doing this.

Seems like you have done these type of things before. A bulk of my files are the in DELL laptop which doesn't boot (It fell on it's side) so I really just have to wing it cus I can't back that up.

[Dixel]

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Reformatting them will cause data loss, yes.

What case are you using?

I'm using the Master Box Q300L, cheap case from coolermaster.

[Ryker Robb]

2 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Will reformatting them cause me to loose any data?

Yes, but i would back up any data from the drives before you remove them anyways. You will want to reformat them to remove the other two partitions(efi and recovery partition) that will become useless.

5 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Also can I even mount them to my case at all do I just have them sitting at the bottom without it being attached to anything

You can just plug them in and leave them there if you want, it doesn't really matter.

[Ryker Robb]

3 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Seems like you have done these type of things before. A bulk of my files are the in DELL laptop which doesn't boot (It fell on it's side) so I really just have to wing it cus I can't back that up.

If that doesn't work, you could also try booting off it, using the desktop pc, or the hp laptop. But if the dell won't boot because it was dropped, there's a chance that that drive could be dead as well.

[Godlygamer23]

27 minutes ago, Dixel said:

I'm using the Master Box Q300L, cheap case from coolermaster.

Your chassis supports mounting two 2.5" drives to the left after removing the cable management panel(towards the front). 

[nikkk]

yes, just back up the files and then format it, and you should be good

[Dixel]

1 hour ago, Ryker Robb said:

If that doesn't work, you could also try booting off it, using the desktop pc, or the hp laptop. But if the dell won't boot because it was dropped, there's a chance that that drive could be dead as well.

Bad News, the hdd from my DELL (the one that doesn't boot) won't show up anywhere. Yes I've connected a sata power and sata cable to my mother board but it won't show. I can feel it vibrate in my hands so it's doing something atleast. Please let me know if this means I've done something wrong here or the HDD is just f**ed.

[Godlygamer23]

1 hour ago, Dixel said:

Bad News, the hdd from my DELL (the one that doesn't boot) won't show up anywhere. Yes I've connected a sata power and sata cable to my mother board but it won't show. I can feel it vibrate in my hands so it's doing something atleast. Please let me know if this means I've done something wrong here or the HDD is just f**ed.

What programs have you used to check the hard drive?

[Dixel]

4 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

What programs have you used to check the hard drive?

Hey update, I plugged in BOTH of the HDD's from the 2 laptops and I can tell you none of them show up, BUT I can hear it spinning AND feel the vibrations in both of them. I just looked at disk management and file explorer to see if they popped up. Should I be using something else?

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Hey update, I plugged in BOTH of the HDD's from the 2 laptops and I can tell you none of them show up, BUT I can hear it spinning AND feel the vibrations in both of them. I just looked at disk management and file explorer to see if they popped up. Should I be using something else?

Use CrystalDiskInfo to see if the drives show up there. Do they also show up in Device Manager?

[Dixel]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Use CrystalDiskInfo to see if the drives show up there. Do they also show up in Device Manager?

No, they don't show up in device manager either... 

[Dixel]

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Use CrystalDiskInfo to see if the drives show up there. Do they also show up in Device Manager?

I might be a little stupid but how do i check if a storage device is detected in bios. I have a gigabyte ultra durable bios.

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, Dixel said:

I might be a little stupid but how do i check if a storage device is detected in bios. I have a gigabyte ultra durable bios.

What motherboard do you specifically have?

[Dixel]

3 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

What motherboard do you specifically have?

Hey just used crystaldiskinfo, yet again, there is no sign of a drive. Someone suggested I should try enabling CSM mode. 

My motherboard is Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Rev 1.7

[Dixel]

The drive from the HP is a healthy working drive and I tested it right before taking it out so it should work. I'm starting to think I'm doing something wrong here. 

I'm not sure about the situation about the DELL drive. I haven't booted that in 3-4 years now. But I doubt it's broken since it was fine the last time I used it and it STILL spins up. Is it MY computer specifically thats not picking up these drives?

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, Dixel said:

The drive from the HP is a healthy working drive and I tested it right before taking it out so it should work. I'm starting to think I'm doing something wrong here. 

I'm not sure about the situation about the DELL drive. I haven't booted that in 3-4 years now. But I doubt it's broken since it was fine the last time I used it and it STILL spins up. Is it MY computer specifically thats not picking up these drives?

Within your UEFI BIOS, navigate to the Boot section. You should be able to see and select any available boot devices there(regardless if they have an OS available or not). You may also have to enable SATA ports too.

[Dixel]

24 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Within your UEFI BIOS, navigate to the Boot section. You should be able to see and select any available boot devices there(regardless if they have an OS available or not). You may also have to enable SATA ports too.

This isn't my first boot btw, I'm adding these about 2 months in. I'm chatting with said PC. So I can do everything fine and everything works as expected, just not those drives...

 

I think it might have something to do with enabling sata ports, I have never heard of such a thing. Could you please tell me how to do that or link me to a tutorial?

 

[Dixel]

Here is something I noticed, before there only used to be 2 boot options, but now it's at 5 boot options. What's going on here and is this relevant to my case?

[Dixel]

Going to follow this guide I found. 

 

[Ryker Robb]

7 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Going to follow this guide I found. 

 

You should be able to go to settings> io ports> sata and rst configuration, and see if the drives are detected. Post a picture if you can.