Can I hook up regular HDD to use as external laptop storage?

[Gwynplaine]

Pretty much what it says. I have a new nice HDD from my PC, but I mostly use my laptop now. Is there a device or USB doohickey I can buy that will let me use that PC standard HDD to hookup to my laptop like its an external? If you get what I'm saying.

[xopher]

usb hard drive enclosure.

[Mellema]

This is one I've used before and it's dirt cheap now. It's nice because it takes 2.5 and 3.5 drives and you can hot swap them. If you want better speed there are similar ones that have USB 3 now.

[Sonomaa]

they will require power but yeah, ive used them a lot in the past, makes things nice and easy. you can also get a dock that can connect via USB or eSATA (if your laptop supports it, eSATA is faster than usb)

[Gwynplaine]

Cool thanks. I didn't really know what google search terms to use that werent generic. I would just be using it while im at home and plugged into AC, does that take care of the power issue?

I just would like to access the data thats on it and use it as storage. I dont need it to be like fast and act as an HDD for real use.

[DAKPluto]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153066

[Cadsuane]

A good thing to have in anyone's wire drawer is a USB (or eSATA) to IDE/SATA wire, with an accompanying AC adapter. The upshot of one of these over an enclosure is that they work with any IDE/SATA device, including disc drives, which is useful if you happen to have a driveless laptop for example. They're also cheaper than enclosures.