Can I Use Laptop Hard Drive In Desktop? (Everything To Know!)

Sometimes when you keep working on a system for a long time, you are more likely to face hard drive issues, and it may format or corrupt the data. In these cases, you can use your laptop for a backup of data. You might be wondering about, can I use laptop hard drive in desktop? I have all the answers for you in detail.

Because you can switch to another hard drive that is from your laptop and can work on it or keep the data save there. So, if you wonder how that work and want to know more about it, you need to read the article till the end for everything you need to know!

Can I use laptop hard drive in desktop?

If you think can I use laptop hard drive in desktop, then the answer is a big yes! And, you can do it in a similar way you do with the desktop hard drive by just plugging in the SATA power cable and the SATA data.

Now, let’s say you are thinking otherwise because this is what comes to mind “can I use the Desktop hard drive in the laptop” the same way as stated above? Well, the answer is no! That’s because no laptop supports a 3.5 hard drive from factor.

Now, before I tell you about the pros and cons of using a laptop hard drive on the desktop, let me tell you briefly about the SATA interface and why it is used, along with the answer that is a 2.5 and 3.5 hard drive form factor.

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SATA interface – what is it?

The work of SATA ports is to connect SATA hard drive to the motherboard. Now, SATA is an interface that adds storage devices to the PC. Now, the following devices that you can use with SATA is below:

1. Desktop hard drive 3.5.
2. Laptop hard drive 2.5.
3. Optical drive DVD, CD, and Blu-ray.
4. SATA 2.5 SSD.

If you don’t know, let me tell you that SATA is compatible to work with different generations and devices. Now, you can use the latest version of SATA 3, and you can use a 2.0 device on a Slot 3.0 slot. And, you can use a 2.5 drive in the place of 3.5.

Can you connect a desktop hard drive to the laptop?

You cannot connect the desktop hard drive to the laptop due to the 3.5 format issue. So, let me get into more details about the computer hard drive used with the desktop, and I will tell you about the cables to use as well.

Can I use laptop hard drive in desktop? How to do it?

As said above, yes, you can use a laptop hard drive on the desktop, and all you need to do is, connect the 2.5 hard drive of a computer with the SATA DATA CABLE or SATA POWER CABLE.

You will see both those ports on the hard drive when you take it out. And, you have to connect both the cables with the hard disk. Now, let me tell you more about the SATA data cable and SATA power cable that how they work.

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What does the SATA data cable do?

SATA data cable can be connected to the motherboard on the SATA port and you can see that these cables are in an L shape. So, this cable can be connected to one end of the motherboard and connect the other end of the cable to another end of the hard drive.

So, that’s how your SATA data cable is connected to the hard drive in the laptop. Now, these cables often arrive with the motherboard package, and you don’t have to worry about the sides of the cable as they are different, and you can figure them out quickly.

As I said above about the SATA power cable, you can connect it to the 2.5 hard drive, which also arrives with a power supply. Now, as we have learned can I use  laptop hard drive in desktop, let me tell you that these two hard drives also have differences, and let me tell you these differences below:

HDD storage capacity

If you want to know about the speed of the hard drive, you need to know that this speed depends on the number of platters that are in the industry. The highest number capacity you can get from the hard drive is 20TB. This is for the desktop hard drive. However, for laptops, you can say that the ability is limited compared to the desktop because of its limited size.

HDD speed of desktops and laptops

So, if we talk about the speed of the desktop hard drives, they have a reasonable rate as compared to laptops’ hard drive because they are bigger and contains a good number of platters and so they cool down quickly.

To give an exact idea, a standard hard drive on the desktop can run for 72000 rotations within a minute, and done best heavy city hard drives also run for 10000 times per minute.

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Performance of the HDDs

Talking about the performance of the HDDs in both systems, you will see that the desktop HDDs have better performance and speed due to so many platters and higher body and internal space. So, this desktop HDD has remained excellent for a long time. And, if we talk about the laptop HDD, it can not compete with the desktop speed due to its smaller size and limitations.

However, talking about the performance on stuff that doesn’t require more power, they both do the job nicely.

Conclusion

So, if you thought can I use laptop hard drive in desktop computer, then you have your detailed an answer now. Connect it with the help of a SATA power cable and SATA data cable and use it.

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