I have a desktop with a SATA drive. I also have a laptop into which I installed a new SATA drive, so I have a working drive but how do I connect it into the desktop. do I buy some cables and simply hook them together.....

Any help appreciated

Colin

What are you trying to do? Transfer files between desktop and laptop?

Do you have any kind of network (WiFi, Router) available?

You'd need something like this:

Or, if your desktop has an external sata port (e-sata), you could buy an external 2.5" drive enclosure with e-sata connectivity. Drive speed would be the same as connecting internal.

If you use an external enclosure and connect to your PC through a USB cable, you'll take a big performance hit...

Monty is correct....unless you have a spare SATA power connector hanging off your PSU. Also you're going to want to find a 2,5" -> 3,5" adapter unless you're ok with the drive hanging around in your case. Double sided tape can work in a pinch however.

Not clear what you are trying to do. I just bought one of these (see below). It supports two SATA drives both 2.5 & 3.5". Has eSATA and USB connector plus cables.

Monty is correct....unless you have a spare SATA power connector hanging off your PSU. Also you're going to want to find a 2,5" -> 3,5" adapter unless you're ok with the drive hanging around in your case. Double sided tape can work in a pinch however.

Thanks everyone, what I want to do is double my HD capacity using the SATA drive from the laptop, I think I will go to a hardware man and ask his advice. The cable looks like what I want. I am using linux but considering going backwards to Windows as I want to use Delphi and it needs Windows.to compile...

Colin

SATA data cables are not like IDE data cables in which you can daisy chain two drives off one IDE connector.

Each SATA data cable must connect to a separate plug on the mother board or SATA PCI adapter (if you have an older motherboard that doesn't have SATA support).

Motherboards in a desktop computer that have SATA support have 4-8 SATA connecters. One for each SATA drive.