this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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Laptop battery recently died, and I'm planning a new PC build anyway, so I'm wondering: can I just remove the HDD from my laptop and connect it to the motherboard? Would I need any extra parts or hardware? I'm guessing no, but it's hard to research on my phone. Any guidance is appreciated :) thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Laptops use a 2.5 inch HDD, most desktop cases are designed to hold a 3.5 inch HDD. You may need a special bracket to hold the drive if the case you plan to use only has 3.5 inch bays.

Some modern cases do also include a 2.5 inch mounting spot due to SSDs using a 2.5 inch form factor.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (4 children)

You'd be surprised how many of us just have the drive dangling in there freely because fuck it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

With a spinning drive you really don't want to do that, head crashes are a real thing and will kill a drive. With an SSD fuck it just yeet the drive into the case.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is true. Spinning platter just dangling could end up getting fucked if it smacks against itself. Like tilting a 360 while running a game would scratch up the disc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Both these comments are super helpful ❤️ I might just let it dangle until I can copy off my data lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're just copying data, just make it external. The usb housing for those things are pretty cheap and can be useful in the future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Oh that's a good idea, I'll look into it !

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I have 5 hard drives in my case which has room for three. And I've never had an issue.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Or double sided tape in a pinch

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you were really lazy, you could also just cover the bottom circuit board of the drive with some electrical tape and just balance it on the jungle of wires running throughout the case.

Not that I would have any experience doing that...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You don't even need to do that. Unless you're pressing and rubbing the board against the chassis, any minor air gap and natural oxidation layer on each side is going to be more than enough for what's probably only 5 V tops.