How to Connect HDD to computer

Hard disk or in other words HDD can be connected to the computer with just a few steps. First of all, the HDD inside the computer is connected with a special interface. In older computers, it is ATA or PATA. In newer computers it is SATA. The PATA interface is not transferable between laptops and desktop computers. However, the SATA interface is the same for laptops and desktop computers. To identify which interface is used in your computer, you can take a look at the pictures below.

If you have a desktop computer, the HDD is located near the front panel and is usually fitted with two screws to the chassis.

Sometimes, it is necessary to remove both the desktop tower side covers to access the HDD and unscrew the holding screws.

To connect an external HDD to the computer, you would need an HDD enclosure. There are two types of HDD enclosures—for laptop hard drives and for desktop hard drives. Each of these types can be PATA or SATA interfaces. The SATA interface would be faster because it is newer.

How external HDD enclosures look is shown in pictures below.

Notice that laptop external HDD enclosures are lot smaller than desktop enclosures. Laptop HDD enclosure also have just a USB cable. A desktop HDD enclosure needs additional power source. Due to that, it also has a power cable.

There is also an eSATA interface which is possible to connect to a computer directly with eSATA cable.

Additionally, there are hard disk enclosure versions with network LAN or wireless LAN features. If we use enclosures like these, all files on this HDD would be available through LAN or wireless network.

You don’t need any special tool to connect an HDD to the computer. Just a screwdriver is needed to open the computer or laptop. You would further need the screwdriver to unscrew a few screws holding the HDD. That's it.
Usually the desktop HDD is connected to the motherboard with ATA or SATA cable. The ATA cable is wider than the SATA cable. The colour of ATA cable usually is white. SATA cables are usually orange, blue, and red.

If the desktop computer is older and don't have a SATA interface, the SATA HDD still can be connected. We need to buy just a SATA PCI card and install it on the computer, load the drivers provided and connect the HDD. There are some SATA PCI cards that do not work in DOS. So, it is not possible to boot your computer from them.

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