My dad needs a hard drive for his old laptop. He says it’s an asus x53e. Will any laptop hdd fit in there or does it have to be something specific?

When you take the old hard drive, just check it's measurements.

It will probably be 2.5" or 1.8" wide and 5-9mm thick. Then you can just find a replacement on a site like Newegg. https://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Internal-Hard-Drives/SubCategory/ID-380?Tid=167524

There’s no hard drive. That’s the issue lol. They were throwing them away at work so he took one but I’m guessing they took all the hdd out

There’s no hard drive. That’s the issue lol. They were throwing them away at work so he took one but I’m guessing they took all the hdd out

Well, in that case just measure the "hole" the dimensions above should still apply.