Laptop Hard Drive used externally?

[Kesava]

My friends laptop stopped working and he is going to use it for parts and I had a look at the hard drive. It connects using sata power and data connections. I was wondering if it would be possible to use it as an external hard drive.

Can I just buy a cheap 2.5" external hard drive enclosure for it? Will it need external power? My other external hard drive which I have now made internal required a power adaptor as well as a usb connection as it couldn't run off only the usb power. It ran off 12v. But this laptop harddrive only uses 5v so I'm wondering whether it would be possible to use it just with a usb cable.

How much power can you get through a USB connection?

It's only a 60GB hard drive but would be nice to have as an external backup drive.

So,

1. Would I be able to get an enclosure and use it as an external hard drive?
2. Would it require power input or would it draw enough power from usb?

Thanks

 

[wicked]

ya they work pretty good i bought one for the 3.5 and the 2.5 i like the 2.5 one better cuz you dont need a power cable

 

[wicked]

i got mine on ebay and they work just fine some have power plugs some use usb only

 

[Kesava]

Why do some have power plugs? Do some 2.5" hard drives still need more then the usb power?