[SOLVED] Use old laptop's hard drive?

[DoYouKubuntu]

Last night I had a brilliant idea...and then I started thinking about how it would actually work. I'd like to take the 1TB hard drive out of my old System76 laptop, put it in an enclosure, and use it with my new System76 laptop as external storage. I know I've done this before--but not with laptops. They were definitely desktops.

And that was back when I had much more ability than I do now. I'm looking for an easy-peasy way of doing this so it just works.

My new laptop has every kind of USB port currently supported. The old hard drive is 6-1/2 years old; I don't recall, but can find, its specs if necessary. Would simply sticking it in an external USB enclosure and plugging it in work? It's formatted as ext4, with /, /home, /data, and [swap] partitions.

I'm even asking--rather than just doing it--because of the assorted problems I've had, hardware related, with my new laptop. Shiny new 1TB thumb drives that didn't work, an almost-brand-new 1TB external drive that it somehow fried...just by plugging it in... I don't want to risk losing the data on this hard drive, so I need some kind of reassurance that my brilliant idea will work!

Personal recommendations for enclosures would be greatly appreciated, too.

[oshunluvr]

I've used a couple over the years. The best one so far is my Ineo 2.5" enclosure. USB-C connection. I'm assuming you're using a laptop 2.5" sata drive?

https://www.amazon.com/ineo-Waterpro...7117645&sr=8-1

[claydoh]

Not sure if it helps for what you want, but I wonder if your new laptop has a second drive bay? If you have only one in it, and it's an NVME drive, I imagine you will have at least one free 2.5 in. bay.

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[DoYouKubuntu]

I've used a couple over the years. The best one so far is my Ineo 2.5" enclosure. USB-C connection. I'm assuming you're using a laptop 2.5" sata drive?

https://www.amazon.com/ineo-Waterpro...7117645&sr=8-1

Thanks, @oshunluvr, for the recommendation. I just looked up the Kudu Pro's specs; its hard drive is 1 TB 5400 RPM SATA II.

ETA: I just looked at your link, and I see from its description: "USB3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) external enclosure with USB Type-C connector" My new laptop's C port is USB 3.2 Gen 2. I have no idea about compatibility. Will it work?

[DoYouKubuntu]

Not sure if it helps for what you want, but I wonder if your new laptop has a second drive bay? If you have only one in it, and it's an NVME drive, I imagine you will have at least one free 2.5 in. bay.

I'll have to look it up to be sure, but I don't think it has an empty drive bay. As our former Governator would say, I'll be back!

ETA: No, it does not.

[GreyGeek]

Being the kinda cheap guy I am I have purchased several of the following enclosures for my old laptop HDs.
https://www.amazon.com/ineo-Tool-Les...7121638&sr=8-2

[claydoh]

Will it work?

yes, it will

[DoYouKubuntu]

Being the kinda cheap guy I am I have purchased several of the following enclosures for my old laptop HDs.
https://www.amazon.com/ineo-Tool-Les...7121638&sr=8-2

Thanks, GG. I just looked at it and I must say, its TOOL-FREE design looks mighty inviting! Now it's a type A USB cord; my new laptop's A port is "USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) Port Type A" from its specs page. So it should work, right?

One thing I'm not clear on: its "hidden" cord. Just how long is it when it's not hidden?

ETA: I just noticed it says its cord is 4.8"--is that correct?! That's really short.

[claydoh]

If you have a gazelle (no idea, just guessing based on the size of the screen being the only thing I recall), I am strongly thinking you do have a free 2.5 inch drive bay free. Unless you have extra drives already, of course. or System76 have recently changed the default specs.
The default drive shows as being an NVME (speeeeed! Weee!) drive, not a SATA one. Of course I am probably wrong lol.

[DoYouKubuntu]

You're right, @claydoh, it's a Gazelle 17.3". And I just went back to look at its specs--that's how I knew for sure it does not have an empty bay. At least that's what it says for mine:

WiFi 6 + Bluetooth
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (64-bit)
4 GB GDDR5 GTX 1650 w/ 896 CUDA Cores
17.3" Matte Full HD 1080p (120 Hz) $69
5 GHz i7-10750H (2.6 up to 5 GHz - 12MB Cache - 6 Cores - 12 Threads)
8 GB DDR4 at 2933 MHz (1× 8GB)
500 GB NVMe Seq Read: 2100 MB/s, Seq Write: 1500 MB/s $45
No Additional M.2 NVMe
No Additional 2.5" Drive
1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty
Normal Assembly Service

[oshunluvr]

The one I picked drew me because "waterproof" is alows good for any portable device.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Ha ha, I hear you, @oshunluvr! Waterproof and drop-resistant, too. Always good to have.

Hey guys, I've just found this enclosure, by narrowing down my search criteria to 4+ stars. It looks good to me; what do you think? Guess what? Its compatibility list includes Linux!!

[claydoh]

500 GB [B]NVMe[/B] Seq Read: 2100 MB/s, Seq Write: 1500 MB/s $45
No Additional M.2 [B]NVMe[/B]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]No Additional 2.5" Drive[/B][/COLOR]

NVMEs don't use 2.5" sata drive bays, they use m.2 slots, directly on the system board.

Here is what one look like:


Well, to be accurate, this is not 100% what they look like, usually, but the size is the same. This is a dinky 16gb Intel Optane cache drive thingy that i pulled from my refurb PC and replaced with a proper nvme ssd.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Okay... @claydoh, I saw the two "no additional drive" things and thought that was that. See how far out of the loop I am?

But you know what? I'm in no mood to even attempt opening up this new laptop and fiddling with things. So I'm going to pass on that idea.

I just went ahead and ordered the drive enclosure I linked to above; it's supposed to arrive tomorrow. What's REALLY cool is the price I ended up paying for it: $0.23!



There was a 5% coupon offered, which I applied, then--thanks to the Amazon Prime credit card, which pays 5% cash back on all purchases--I had $13.37 credit I could use, so I did and, voila!, a whopping 23 cents. Can't argue with that. Now if it just works...

[claydoh]

Cool, that is a good deal!

I do not blame you for not wanting to take the cover off your laptop.