How to Access an Old Hard Drive

[pittphantoms]

I pulled my old hard drive out of my laptop I am tossing. I would at some point like to be able to access the music I have stored. Is there some device or a way to get these files from a hard drive?

I couldnt do it before I dumped the computer because of a bunch of reason (all USB ports stopped working / the screen stopped displaying anything I needed to use a seperate monitor - and the final straw was the DC adapter broke and I could no longer get a charge) - but the hard drive is in perfect condition.

I dont know if it will help but its a Hitachi Travelstar - 5v 1.1A DC - 7200 RPM ATA/IDE

If anyone has advice I would appreciate it.

[JPMNICK]

they sell adapters to allow a laptop drive to be installed in a PC, i am not sure how much they are though. once you did this, you would be able to use it like a normal extra hard drive and get off all of your files.

[JPMNICK]

here it is, and it's 20 bucks

http://www.casecooler.com/3drto2dr.html

[pittphantoms]

Damn I just bought another laptop - I wonder if they do anything like this with a USB cable

[pittphantoms]

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=1501&sku=30500

It appears that may be possible

Thank you so much.

[JPMNICK]

once you convert it to be used in a desktop, you can use an external enclosure to attach it via USB to the new laptop

[KnoxHarrington]

once you convert it to be used in a desktop, you can use an external enclosure to attach it via USB to the new laptop

You should be able to find an enclosure just about everywhere that sells hard drives.

A tip: you can probably buy a good internal drive and an enclosure for much less than you'd pay for an equally sized external drive.

[donnie_darko]

they make usb/firewire cases that can house a laptop sized hard drive.

that way you could also use it as a portable backup.

[pittphantoms]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded.

It worked awesome and I have an extra 60 GB portible device now!

[KingGeno]

That's the good thing about having an external hard drive. New backup drive. :wink: