Solid-state drives are all the rage. Since SSDs have no moving parts, they’re more rugged and shock-resistant than standard hard drives–which makes them perfect for laptops that get bumped around a ...

Reader Fred wants to know if a laptop hard drive can be plugged into a desktop PC. “The pin out appears to be the same,” he notes, “but there is no separate power-supply connector.” Short answer: yes.

If you've upgraded your laptop, don't discard that "naked" drive. You can put it back to work as external storage. Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and ...