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!
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.
You’d be surprised how many of us just have the drive dangling in there freely because fuck it.
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.
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.
I have 5 hard drives in my case which has room for three. And I’ve never had an issue.
Both these comments are super helpful ❤️ I might just let it dangle until I can copy off my data lol
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.
Oh that’s a good idea, I’ll look into it !
I did this in a very similar case to OP once. Worked without issues. 2.5" HDDs are so tiny and usually low RPM that it doesn’t really matter that much. But there’s also a bunch of cheap solutions you can use, like rubber bands or even just some foam to lay it on (did that with 3.5" HDDs).
Or double sided tape in a pinch
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…
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.