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.

Almost exactly a year ago, I told you about Newer Technology’s USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter, a clever product that lets you quickly and easily access data on bare hard drives—specifically, 2.5-inch ...