Questions on transferring hdd's

[Hero13]

Hello Everyone, I recently took apart my old laptop and salvaged the 500GB HDD . I only have two questions and then a follow-up question to the second:

1. Is it possible to transfer laptop hard drives to a desktop computer? They have SATA ports and I know how to do it, but I'm just wondering if they would be compatible.

2. If there were any viruses on the hard drive, would re-formatting and erasing all of the data on them it to work on my desktop get rid of the viruses?
2.5: Does re-formatting a hard drive erase all of the data anyway?

Thank you very much!

Side note: I do not want to transfer data from the old hard drive. I do not care if any files are lost and if they are that would be better, actually.

 

[getochkn]

1. Yes, it will plug in no problem. It may fit in a HD bay if your case does have a 2.5" bay, in which case you either let it sit freely somewhere or get a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter.

2. Yes, formatting it will erase the viruses, although if you plug the drive in, don't access it at all. Even looking at some files could trigger something. Better yet, format the drive using a boot disc or even the Windows installer disc.

3. Yes.


The biggest thing is most laptop drives are 5400rpm's in speed and seem sooooo slow on a desktop. Don't plan on running games off it, it will be slow. Downloading torrents to it, it will lag and get cache errors. It's good for basic backup or occasional access, IMO anyways.

 

[ss202sl]

It will work, but don't expect to take the OS on a laptop HDD and expect it to boot on a desktop - You would need to re-install an OS.