laptop hard drive recovery

[looney]

Would it be possible to get a hard drive out of a laptop and hook it up onto a desktop pc to recover the data?

Do laptop hdd have same connectos as normal hard drives?

Also is it difficult to take out a hard drive from a laptop?

thanks

[360bhp]

Easy to get out, 1 or 2 screws and should slide out. You'll need one of these..
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=36945

May be cheaper on ebay. Simply plug your drive in, and comes up just as a regular HDD.

[Funkstar]

you can probably pick up one of those adapters on ebay for a couple of pounds if you don't mind waiting for postage.

if it is a SATA drive though, they connect with standard SATA power and data connectors.

[TheReaFireblade]

Just buy yourself a 2.5" external enclosure for it - in whatever format the HDD is - i.e. IDE or SATA... or pay more for an enclosure which supports both formats.

Here are examples of each: IDE (£3.96 delivered) / SATA (£4 + £4 P&P)/ IDE + SATA (£16 delivered)

[jw007]

I had a few problems with the 2.5" enclosure I purchased, due to power requirements. Mine was an IDE drive so I went for a USB-to-IDE connector which included an AC power adaptor & 2.5" adaptor. Maplin should have something similar or try a quick Google on 'USB to IDE'. Good Luck.

[vinnyT]

I use the Sharkoon DriveLink (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=550155) for these sort of jobs, though at £22.31 it may be pricy for a one off job.

[looney]

Thanks for the info, will look into those and pass them on.