You can put it into your desktop computer if it's a SATA drive.

Tnx for the info. I will go and check what type of driver it is.

It's most likely a SATA. IDE drives, (the older type) are nearly gone now. However, miniaturized laptop drives are less reliable than full sized drives. I am not saying it will explode five minutes after you installed it. But consider that fact before you buy.

Also, is it a Solid State Drive or a platter drive? Platter drives have motors that spin platters inside and they "hum" when you power them. They will also have RPM ratings. Solid State Drives are drives made from memory that's similar to your computer's RAM. (In principle only, please don't somebody tell me how wrong I am. Just illustrating a difference here.)

SSD (Solid State Drives) don't have any moving parts, motors or other mechanical devices that can break and are therefore more reliable in theory. They do eventually wear out, but you can expect a decade or more of use before it does.

If it's a SSD, I would have no qualms buying it, because they are all small 3.5 inch form factor drives now. (Fits in a PC or a laptop.) If its a platter drive, I would still not be afraid, unless it's built for a laptop. Even then, if it's a good price, I would have no qualms. Just be a little more diligent about backing up files, etc.

Check the prices online before you strike a deal though.

Anthony

"Laptop" hard drives and "desktop" hard drives are no different and their reliability, both, are of variable nature. More and more desktop computer cases are starting to have specialty slots in them for the 2.5 inch counterparts both mechanical and SSD. And while SSD is still relatively new, you have far more options as to what layering technology to choose from for datastorage, one, of course, not being as reliable and death-bound than the other. Though, anyone creative enough can take several USB memory sticks and RAID them as a massive drive that the computer can use as well.

When I say "Laptop" hard drives and "Desktop" hard drives, it's only for a common point of reference. Most layman know that desktop drives were bigger until just recently, while laptop drives were smaller. And the older generations of hard drives most certainly do have reliability differences.

Brand new drives, the latest small drives that have spinning platters and motors in desktops and laptops are the same, I agree with you there. But up until recently, there were some pretty big differences in reliability.

All the new stuff though, is totally identical in size and function. It matters not if you put it in a laptop or a desktop, there is no difference.

But he's buying an older drive, least it sounds that way.

I see dead laptop drives from one generation back and older constantly in the shop. while our larger "desktop drives" still have their larger drives running a decade or more. Again, I am only talking about one generation back and older. The latest drives, something made in the last two years or so, (roughly) are identical in size and construction, no matter what case they are in.

And always remember that anything that gets "shrunk" usually has some trade offs- at first. Those factors have been eliminated in the latest stuff though.

Just this week I sent back three laptop drives to Dell for replacement, but as I said these were older, one generation back drives.

If the stuff your friend is offering is a year or less older and it's a good deal, go for it. But make sure you price it against what you can get on the open market, that's my advice. And if it's older than that, I still would not worry too much- if the price is right.

It helps to think of the transition from prop driven planes of 1945 to jets. Prop driven planes were at their absolute peak in 1945. The stuff rolling off the US lines was simply amazing. But it was just about as far as the prop could be taken because of physics. Props just could not be spun any faster- or they would come apart. (Not a fun event. It's happen in high speed dives before. The pilot usually did not have to worry about the prop flying off, usually the plane just shook itself apart, resulting in a fireball or the pilot flying at 500 MPH or faster- with no airplane around him. That's enough to snap a neck, break bones or otherwise knock a person out.)

Platter drives are the same. They are at their absolute peak. Any further improvements will come at a high cost for little gain. There's only so much that the laws of physics allow. But jet engines work on a totally different principal. They were buggy at first, but soon became as reliable as piston engines- or even more so.

Solid State Drives are the jet engines of hard drives. They are new and they had some bugs at first. But at this point, they are a proven technology and I would not be afraid of anything made in the past two years. Speed wise, their greatest advantage is in booting. I have one in my laptop here and I am amazed at the speed. I put one into an old gateway laptop as an experiment and then gave it a huge page file- tremendous improvement.

SSD's still don't quite surpass platter drives yet, dollar for dollar, but they are comparable and will soon enough leave platters in the dust. The reason platters they are still around is because they are proven tech, the assembly lines are cheap to run and that makes the drives cheap to sell. As SSDs drop in cost to manufacture, they will surpass platter drives in all areas. Cost, performance, cost to build and reliability- they are pretty much there now.

Ok, that's likely more than you want to know about drives Weasel K, but now you have the information to make an informed decision. Just remember to price whatever he wants to sell you against what you can buy it for open market.