Question Laptop HDD in a Desktop

Jan 31, 2019
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Hello,
So i recently scavenged my old laptops HDD and put it in my desktop. The HDD already has windows on it and I already have a Sandisk 240 SSD in it running my OS. The problem is when both are plugged in the PC doesn't boot to the OS it just stalls. The reason i scavenged the old HDD was because the laptop stopped booting up so i'm thinking that's the problem. I have already tried opening the boot menu and selecting my SSD, still stalls. I want to format the HDD but i can't without my OS running and I can't run my OS with it plugged in. Any suggestions/guides i can follow???? Really need the extra storage.
Thanks
 
Technically, the SATA spec requires support for hot plugging (plugging / unplugging drives while the system is powered on). Be sure you have a backup of your system before you try this. There's no telling how well/poorly your motherboard manufacturer implemented the SATA spec. Since almost no home user ever uses hot plugging, they might not have bothered to test it to make sure they implemented it correctly. So I cannot guarantee whether or not it'll work, or if it'll cause damage to the rest of your system.

If you decide to try this, you'd boot the desktop with the laptop drive disconnected. Once your system is running, then you can plug in the laptop drive (be careful not to knock anything else unplugged). It should then show up just as if you'd plugged in a USB drive.

The safer way is to get a SATA to USB HDD enclosure (about $10-$15 off Amazon). Put the laptop HDD in that, and plug it into a USB port.

If you're too impatient to wait for that to arrive, I'd use a flash drive to create a Windows install USB. Put the HDD back in the laptop, and boot the laptop off the flash drive. Unless the laptop is so broken it can't boot off that, it'll allow you to format the HDD. And if the laptop can boot off that but can't format the HDD, then you know it's the HDD which is faulty and can just chuck it in the trash.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-bootable-media-uefi-support
 
Jan 31, 2019
10
0
10
Technically, the SATA spec requires support for hot plugging (plugging / unplugging drives while the system is powered on). Be sure you have a backup of your system before you try this. There's no telling how well/poorly your motherboard manufacturer implemented the SATA spec. Since almost no home user ever uses hot plugging, they might not have bothered to test it to make sure they implemented it correctly. So I cannot guarantee whether or not it'll work, or if it'll cause damage to the rest of your system.

If you decide to try this, you'd boot the desktop with the laptop drive disconnected. Once your system is running, then you can plug in the laptop drive (be careful not to knock anything else unplugged). It should then show up just as if you'd plugged in a USB drive.

The safer way is to get a SATA to USB HDD enclosure (about $10-$15 off Amazon). Put the laptop HDD in that, and plug it into a USB port.

If you're too impatient to wait for that to arrive, I'd use a flash drive to create a Windows install USB. Put the HDD back in the laptop, and boot the laptop off the flash drive. Unless the laptop is so broken it can't boot off that, it'll allow you to format the HDD. And if the laptop can boot off that but can't format the HDD, then you know it's the HDD which is faulty and can just chuck it in the trash.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-bootable-media-uefi-support
Well the laptop is gutted basically. I'll try the enclosure and if all else fails then it's whatever. Thank you
 
Hello,
So i recently scavenged my old laptops HDD and put it in my desktop. The HDD already has windows on it and I already have a Sandisk 240 SSD in it running my OS. The problem is when both are plugged in the PC doesn't boot to the OS it just stalls. The reason i scavenged the old HDD was because the laptop stopped booting up so i'm thinking that's the problem. I have already tried opening the boot menu and selecting my SSD, still stalls. I want to format the HDD but i can't without my OS running and I can't run my OS with it plugged in. Any suggestions/guides i can follow???? Really need the extra storage.
Thanks

If the disk was bad in the laptop, moving to another computer won't make it good. Get rid of it and get another drive for storage.