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How do I make my laptop hard drive my secondary drive on my desktop?

I have a Dell Inspiron 2500 hard drive and I want to make it a scondary drive on a Dell Dimension 2400. I tried using a Laptop to IDE Hard Drive Adapter however I can't seem to connect it to may laptop hard drive. There is another type of an adapter that is sold with mounting brackets should I buy that insted? I need to extract files from my laptop hard drive and currently it doesn't work in my laptop. I just took it out.

Public Comments

1. I guess the question I'd ask is why? If you want to move data from your laptop to your pc just network them together? If you need another disk for you Dimension, they are very cheap. Just buy a new IDE hard drive.
2. You will need a 2.5" USB enclosure to hook it up to your desktop. It will not mount in a standard 3.5" desktop PC drive bay.
3. get the one with mounting brackets.
4. It is possible that your usb ports are not supplying enough power to the laptop hdd. Are you connecting thru a usb hub or the computer usb ports? Hubs don't always supply power, they are sometime just pathways for data. Next thought, does your ide adapter have have 2 different types of connector? I have one that is for 3.5" drives on one side and 2.5" drives on the other. You are using the right side, correct? The suggestion of a 2.5" external enclosure is good. Some of those come with a dual ended usb cable to provide extra power.