Possible to convert an internal laptop hard drive into an external one?

Aoife-FM104

Hello,

I have two laptops. One of them got bathed in Corona so it won't turn on anymore.

I am hoping to be able to take out the hard drive, convert it into an external hard drive, and access the contents using my other laptop.

Two questions -

1. Is it possible to do this?
2. Would I be able to run my old applications off the new "external" drive?

Thanks a mill!

Aoif

Karoma

1. Yes. Remove the laptop HDD and insert it into a 2.5"(Presumably) enclosure. This enclosure then connects to another computer using whatever the supplied interface(s) is-USB being the most common.
2. Depends on the application...

delly

1. Yes. All you would need is a USB hard drive caddy that can also fit laptop drives.

2. No. As they will have been installed on the version of windows that was on the hard disk. Since you won't be booting from it, all you will be able to do is access the files.

Aoife-FM104

Thanks for your answers. That's fairly good news so.

Regarding point 2, in theory I could copy across the program files to the working laptop, and try running them from there??

Karoma

It's not likely. Again, it depends on the application.
When you install a program in Windows- it often adds references to the windows registry + places files in system folders for reference. If you simply copy the folder with the main app+files -you'll still be missing other essential references and files...
TBH, just get the setup file and (re)install the app's.


BTW: A 'caddy' / 'enclosure' for a 2.5" HDD should cost around 30-50euro roughly. Are you sur e the HDD didn't sustain any liquid damage?:)

delly

Aoife-FM104 wrote:

Thanks for your answers. That's fairly good news so.

Regarding point 2, in theory I could copy across the program files to the working laptop, and try running them from there??

/EDIT Damnit Karoma, always one step ahead

Karoma

delly wrote:

/EDIT Damnit Karoma, always one step ahead

Except when I'm behind you. *thrust*

Aoife-FM104

Thanks

I have no idea if it got liquid damage. But I'd rather waste €50 trying than assume it's ****ed!!

I'm still upset about the Corona incident. It was weeks ago. When I think of everything I've lost (even forgetting the many thousand euro worth of hardware and software...)

delly

Karoma wrote:

Except when I'm behind you. *thrust*

*backs away*

Aoife-FM104 wrote:

But I'd rather waste €50 trying than assume it's ****ed!!

Unless it was a waterfall of Corona, the hard disk should be grand.

justsomebloke

also depending on which laptop had the more important/ harder to reinstall programmes you could swap the hard drive from the broken laptop into your working one (if they are the same type of drive), and then use that as the external hard drive

jimmycrackcorm

On point 1 there is an advantage in that most 2.5 inch drive enclosures only require power from the USB and not an external power adapter.

On point two, you can run the applications of the drive but generally you will need to copy in the registry settings and any ini files to your new windows directory. Add a path to the old windows location on the external drive and it should usually find any necessary dlls dumped in windows. VB applications typically need to register OCX controls also. So the easisest way to do that is to re-run the installation to overwrite on to the new external drive location and then copy in and adjust any old registry / .ini entries.

Works most of the time.

copilotcrash

i'm having the same problem with my laptop. the computer just went kaput, but i wanna salvage the contents of my hard drive. does buying one of those laptop hard drive enclosures require any modifications to the hard drive? as in, do i need to install something on that hard drive before i can access the files? or can i just take out the old drive, install it in an enclosure, plug it in and go? i wanted to try my hard drive out on my friend's laptop identical to mine, but hers happened to die at the same time as mine! grrrrr... anyways, if anyone knows, i'd be very thankful.

delly

copilotcrash wrote:

or can i just take out the old drive, install it in an enclosure, plug it in and go?

Thats it exactly!