pwhittle

Quick question - I don't have the laptop details (old Tosh I think), but if I take the HD out, is there likely to be an IDE port, or do laptops use proprietry connections?

BlkKnight

you need a 2 1/2 " > 3 1/2" converter.

That'll allow you to plug it into your PC as a second disk.

boxst

I bought on of these: Maplin > IDE / SATA to USB 2.0 as it'll do normal hard drives as well as laptops.

Steve

Sonic'

I have an external USB caddy for 2.5 inch disks, and I have a 3.5 inch USB one too

Sometimes the hard drives have a little connector on the end that needs removing first to put into a caddy but it largely depends on the laptop it comes out of

Alternatively as others have suggested you can get 3.5 to 2.5 converters but it does mean opening up your PC and messing about with it, USB is easier

pwhittle

I'm happy to put in in my pc, rather than use a caddy, as I just need to save the data, as long as I can connect it to IDE

boxst

I still suggest what I recommended above ... as you just take the hard drive out of the laptop, plug it into the device and then into a USB port.

Job done.

Steve

Sonic'

for the cost of that Steve, you may as well get a caddy as they are the same price

boxst

True ... I just liked the SATA, IDE and 2.5" IDE as I use it to recover data from lots of hard drives so can't be bothered to screw them in to a caddy.

Thinking about it, probably not that safe actually as they just sit on the floor whilst I copy the data!

Steve

Sonic'

LOL, sometimes I have them hanging down by the power cables, depends on how quick I need to transfer the data or how much time I have

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Thats a nice piece of kit for data recovery

If you are not going to be recovering data from lots of different drives then I would suggest a caddy as the better option. That will allow you to use an old drive as a USB backup location in the future.