removing a hard drive

julie03

my pc needs a new psu but we dont really want to keep a pc anymore we would rather just use laptops

my question is can i take my hard drive out of my pc and put it in another tower so i can save all the stuff i have on there to an external source

they are different makes of pc and the one that works has no operating system on it
thanks

googler

Yes.

Google 'removing hard drive', 'replacing hard drive' etc and search with same terms on YouTube for visual guides.

You may find that you have a SATA drive, and the tower you want to use it in takes IDE drives, or vice versa - if so, get IDE-SATA adaptors from Maplin or other computer stores.

debitcardmayhem

julie03 wrote: »

my pc needs a new psu but we dont really want to keep a pc anymore we would rather just use laptops

my question is can i take my hard drive out of my pc and put it in another tower so i can save all the stuff i have on there to an external source

they are different makes of pc and the one that works has no operating system on it
thanks

You will need something to copy the data

googler

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

You will need something to copy the data

The OS that's on the drive being moved? (as long as the OP installs it as the primary drive, not secondary)

sho_me_da_money

- Leave the HDD in the PC
- Boot up using a LIVE CD such as a Linux distro or Hirens Disk (preferred)
- If using Hirens, boot up to the Mini Windows XP environment
- Plug in an external USB HDD into the PC and copy the contents over.

googler

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

- Leave the HDD in the PC
- Boot up using a LIVE CD such as a Linux distro or Hirens Disk (preferred)
- If using Hirens, boot up to the Mini Windows XP environment
- Plug in an external USB HDD into the PC and copy the contents over.

How will the OP boot up the current PC without a working power supply?

petecarter

A good idea would be to buy a hard drive case or caddy. You would just unplug your hard drive and slide it into the caddy. It then works as an external hard drive. This is good because you can drag and drop your files onto your laptop but still use the old hard drive as a portable hard drive in the future.