Laptop HDD in a caddy meant for Desktop Drives?

Cairnsey · 4 Aug 2011 at 22:10

Hi Guys,

Hopefully just a quickie....

Tonight I decided to cannabalise my broken external HDD enclosure that used to have a 750Gb 3.5" SATA Desktop Drive in it. I would like to know if I can use a 2.5" Laptop drive on the circuitry?
The problem is, I know lappy HDDs only need 5v and desktops 12v and connecting only the usb cable doesn't make the drive spin up at all.

So.......if I connect the drive to the mains, will I fry the drive? :confused:

Cairnsey

marms · 4 Aug 2011 at 23:08

It'll be fine connected to the mains.

freddie64 · 5 Aug 2011 at 10:48

Did it work?

You can get 2.5" caddies for a few £ from other places, much neater and no power brick.

Sin_Chase · 5 Aug 2011 at 10:50

Yes you can use a 2.5" drive. May need to convert the power connector out if not SATA power though.

Cairnsey · 6 Aug 2011 at 14:59

Yep. Works fine.

Justintime · 6 Aug 2011 at 15:55

Yep will be fine, the reverse is not true as 2.5" USB only enclosure controllers only have the 5v line.

red eye · 8 Nov 2011 at 14:57

so a sata laptop hdd will work in a desk top.
I am asking becuase I have just built my pc and have to wait till end of the month for hdd to be delivered.

I would like to use the hdd in this laptop and put it in my new build to test if every thing works