Interchanging laptop hard drives

[mikieb]

Is it possible to remove my current laptop hard drive (hdd 1), insert and boot from a second hard drive (hdd 2), and then remove hdd 2 and replace with hdd 1...and then continue to run normally from hdd 1.

The reason I ask is that I have an extra laptop hard drive that I would like to get rid of, but I want to wipe it clean of all my data before I do. I know of a few free programs I can use, but I want to avoid having to buy a cable to connect it to my other pc.

 

[erabyss]

I dont think that is possible. I know there are many LiveCD that would work for you. Try "GParted" or "Killdisk" both are free.

 

[carnageX]

As long as the connections are the same, why wouldn't it be possible? All he's doing is removing his primary drive, inserting the secondary drive, wipe that one, remove it, and insert his primary drive again. You won't be able to boot into Windows w/ the 2nd drive, most likely, but you could do what erabyss said, and boot off of a Killdisk disk with your SECONDARY drive installed, wipe it, and then reinsert your primary drive.

 

[Kharn]

If the laptop is powered on don't try it, you can ruin your laptop by trying it.

 

[Peter.Cort]

if you have a windows disk you can format it.

 

[peterhuang913]

As long both of the hard drives are bootable, it's possible.

 

[mikieb]

hey thanks everyone. yeah i did what i needed to. instead of booting from the second hard drive, i just made a bootable killdisk cd as erabyss suggested. thanks man. that took care of the job, i popped the original hard drive back in and everything is as normal.

 

[peterhuang913]

Yup, as expected.