Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Laptop hard drive, old vs new, question?
My old Acer laptop of 5 1/2 years of heavy use & abuse took a dive. Assuming the hard drive (SATA) is still ok, do they make an adapter to plug it into a new laptop, also Acer more than likely, via USB so I can retrieve my files? Also is there a way to get programs installed on the old drive to install to the new drive, particularly Microsoft Office? And one more, since the new laptop will likely not have an optical drive, I've read where this can mean there's room for a second drive to be installed, true?
Thanks
4 Answers
- joelius24Lv 76 years ago
yes, you are looking for a laptop harddrive usb enclosure, and i recommend spending a few extra bucks on usb 3. they are usually around $20 or less. you can't really retrieve whole programs, but you can retrieve individual files. you can just download office again (who the hell knows why on earth anyone pays for office, i'll never know) from microsoft's site and put in your old key.
no, if there isn't room for an optical drive, they likely made the laptop lighter or just filled the space with more battery. doesn't necessarily mean there is an extra hard drive bay, though some huge laptops do allow for this.
- JoeLv 76 years ago
Yes, you can get an adapter, or enclosure, that will allow you to connect your old hard drive as an external USB drive. They are quite reasonably priced.
For the most part, you will NOT be able to transfer programs from the old hard drive to the new laptop.
Most manufacturers who have eliminated the optical drive have done so to reduce the thickness, weight and cost of the laptop; it's not likely that they will have room for a second hard drive. (There will be exceptions, of course.)
- Spock (rhp)Lv 76 years ago
that 'adapter' is called an enclosure. there are plenty of them and you can get one from your favorite online vendor for under $20. just be sure it will handle your SATA connector and 2.5 inch form factor
