Booting from IDE HDD on laptop?

[mikehende]

I know that there are laptop to IDE converters but is there anything that will do the reverse? Meaning, let's say you get a laptop without a HDD, can you connect a Desktop's HDD to it and boot from the desktops' HDD?

[mjc]

Maybe...

Some laptops will allow booting from other devices.

I haven't seen a 'reverse' adapter, probably because there isn't much call for it, due to size constraints...a 3.5 IDE just won't fit in 99.999999999% of the laptops around.

[azzey]

If you mean you want to use a desktop HDD instead of the laptop HDD, I would say there are a couple possibilities. First, you could put the HDD in an enclosure and connect it via USB but that's only useful if the laptop can boot from USB devices (nearly all older laptops cant).

Second, there may be some type of adapter available (3.5" to 2.5") but if there is, I've never seen one. That's probably not the best option because it would involve leaving the hard drive bay open and having an unprotected hard drive hanging out... not very mobile if you ask me!

My bet would be on the first one. Remember if you can't boot directly to USB, you could always set up a boot CD-ROM that directs the computer to load from the USB HDD.

Or alternatively, you could buy a 2.5" HDD and not worry about any of that

[Edit] mjc beat me to it! [/Edit]

[jlreich]

To add to the USB idea, you can run a Linux live CD and use the USB drive as storage.

Once it's all said and done though I think you would have as much money in doing all this that you might as well get a new laptop HDD.

But it is a good way to salvage a laptop that has a damaged HDD interface, or as a temporary fix until you get the new drive in.

[saphalline]

There is no reverse connector. 2.5" hard drives never use more than 10W total, whereas 3.5" hard drives can use many times that amount. In addition, 2.5" hard drives only use the +5V rail - 3.5" hard drives also use the +12V rail. A reverse connector does not exist because a 2.5" 44-pin connector does not provide support for all the features of 3.5" hard drives. Even with SATA, you've still got the power consumption problem.

It's a set theory problem. 2.5" is a complete subset of 3.5". Therefore a reverse connector is not possible. That's logic!