looking for how to make my HDD in my laptop into a USB external HDD

[zobcity1]

my dell 1530 laptop (about 5 years old) croaked, Basically all I am trying to do is salvage the HDD out of it, by locating a
connector for the HDD so I
can use the HDD as a USB drive and capture the data from it.

The laptop I think needs a MB yet I am not all that excited
about fixing it unless the MD is really cheap.

If anyone knows where to get a MB that would be good to know about too

Thx

[Geek-9pm]

dell 1530 laptop (about 5 years old)

That was a good model and is still in demand on the used market. You may be able to find a motherboard. Or you could buy a refurbished unit and transfer you stuff over to it. Expect to pay $100 for a motherboard.

Here is the gadget you want:

They are sold as a USB to HDD adapter.
You can get them from most of the on-line stores. Under $20 with shipping.

[Salmon Trout]

You can get a thing called an enclosure which is a case complete with USB to HDD adapter. They come with all the necessary screws etc and I think it is better and neater than just using an adapter on its own with a bare drive. Less chance of a stray metal thing e.g. a staple or paper clip contacting the exposed drive's electronics. The picture below shows an IDE hard drive but you can get them for SATA drives as well. Some enclosures can use either type.

http://www.datarecoverytutorial.com/recover-data-from-failed-laptop-notebook/

[zobcity1]

Thank you very much for the excellent information.



Now, I supposed that finding a source for the refurbished MB would be my next question.

So, Please steer me in the right direction on a source- anyone.

I'll sniff around on EBAY after posting this.

Thx