Laptop to pc hdd swap?

[Kyle0990]

I have a hp pavillion dv7 laptop with two 750gb hard drives, I recently bought a new gaming desktop and I was wondering if I could take one of my un-used hdd's from my laptop and install it into my gaming PC. I know there is a size difference for pc's use 3.5, and laptops use 2.5 hdd's, but can this swap be done?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Yes you can use the laptop HDD in the desktop.

 

[zarugal]

The swap can be done, yes. But you may need a drive mounting bracket. You'll also find that you'll want to remove any windows files on the laptop drive, so you'd do best to back up the data on it, and format the drive.

 

[Kyle0990]

Okay so I just need to find a way to mount in securely thank you!

 

[ArtPog]

As "turkey..." and zarugal have stated you can indeed install the laptop's 2 1/2" HDD in your new desktop PC. You'll probably need an adapter that allows you to install your laptop HDD in one of the desktop case's 3 1/2" bays. Something along the order of this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994158&cm_re=HDD_adapter-_-17-994-158-_-Product

On the other hand the case may have one or more bays that are specifically designed to house a 2 1/2" HDD or SSD so that you won't need an adapter to mount the laptop's HDD.

BTW, I take it you don't feel the need for a internally-connected second HDD in your HP laptop? You don't think it's useful to maintain comprehensive backups of your primary HDD or use it for other storage purposes?

The reason I ask is that I helped a friend purchase a similar HP laptop precisely because an internally-connected two-HDD configuration was available with that machine. That configuration was important to us because the user can then clone the contents of his/her primary HDD to the secondary drive on a routine/frequent basis so as to maintain up-to-date comprehensive backups of the system. (We use the Casper disk-cloning program for this purpose. It's extraordinary fast in its disk-cloning speed when used on a frequent basis.)

So there was no problem with the disk-cloning aspects. But what disappointed me was that we could not boot to the 2nd HDD. The system (Win 7) would not permit a boot from that 2nd drive. The clone was still available, of course, and still serves a useful purpose in that in the event of primary disk failure the cloned second HDD would be available for substitution/recovery. But I much preferred an additional capability for the second HDD to be bootable while installed in the second HDD bay.

I've gone round & round with HP technical support on this but to no avail. I was wondering what your experience has been along these lines although I suspect you haven't cloned the contents of your primary HDD to the secondary HDD. But if you have can you tell me your experience re the booting angle? Thanks.