2.5" drive ina 3.5" enclosure

[canooten]

I've got a laptop that is showing no primary drive installed. I'm assuming the hard drive is simply not functioning as BIOS setup seems to be correct and the machine simply refused to boot one day (it's a friends machine so I may not have all the info needed to diagnose correctly).

In cases like this I usually try to install the drive into an external enclosure to test the function of the drive and remove all data if it still has life left. Issue is that this is an SATA drive and the only 2.5" enclosure I have is IDE.

I do have a 3.5" SATA enclosure and since the connections are identical on both sizes, the smaller drive will fit, I just know that power requirements are different and I don't want to fry the 2.5" drive. Will this screw things up or is it safe to test a laptop drive with an enclosure like:

Welcome to Vantec – Vantec NexStar 3 - NST-360SU-BL - 3.5" SATA to USB2.0 and eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure (Midnight Blue)

 

[kmote]

It should be safe. The worst that can happen is that the drive draws less power than can be provided - not a problem.

 

[canooten]

OK. Just wasn't sure since the larger case has to be plugged in for power and the 2.5 cases draw from USB.