laptop hard drive - Saxperience

leeham987 · 27th July 2011, 06:54

a few years ago my acer laptop died on me, basically whenever i plug a charger in it fried it, and even sets the charger lead alight :/

anyway, is it possible to get everything of the hard drive somehow? its been stuck in my room for years now.

JA3llis · 27th July 2011, 07:48

I am sure aslong as the hdd isnt fried aswell you can get the info of it pretty easy but you have to disassemble the laptop to get it out then all you need is a sata to usb cable (find out if its a sata hdd first) and bobs your uncle.

Ross^p · 27th July 2011, 15:39

yes absolutely possible, and straightforward to do. You need to remove the drive (normally in a slot that has one screw to remove for easy access) and (as posted above) get the correct interface for it. Simpliest way would be to put it in an external caddy you can get from ebay for about £10 - you just need to know if it's IDE or SATA before you buy your caddy.

That way, you'd not only have access to the data on it, but you'd also be able to continue to enjoy the benefits of the drive going forward (IE, use it for transfers, PS3 backups etc).

Reggae_Dub · 27th July 2011, 17:45

Once you've backed everything up you can use it in your Sky + box for more space if you have one

Bound · 28th July 2011, 15:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by RossDagley

yes absolutely possible, and straightforward to do. You need to remove the drive (normally in a slot that has one screw to remove for easy access) and (as posted above) get the correct interface for it. Simpliest way would be to put it in an external caddy you can get from ebay for about £10 - you just need to know if it's IDE or SATA before you buy your caddy.

That way, you'd not only have access to the data on it, but you'd also be able to continue to enjoy the benefits of the drive going forward (IE, use it for transfers, PS3 backups etc).

Exactly this, as Ross said - on laptops the hard drives are usually protected by a cover held with 1 screw for easy access, you can also use a sata - esata cable and plug it into another laptop (although you'll need to power the drive somehow) or a PC with a esata input, or a sata - sata cable and plug it straight into the motherboard on a desktop or as Ross suggested - a caddy. Even if the hard drive is corrupted there is recovery software available (EASUS for example). Let us know how it goes. Hopefully it won't come to recovery and will just be a case of copy and paste (may as well do the whole drive for peace of mind and then go through it imo), hopefully you won't experience the cyclic redundancy error

(although again you can get round it).

leeham987 · 28th July 2011, 18:50

thanks for the help, gonna crack on with it in abit, no idea what IDE, sata etc is, but 1st thing 1st ill get harddrive out, then get back to you.

leeham987 · 28th July 2011, 19:18

just taken it out, so what would i need now?

Bound · 28th July 2011, 19:20

I see, that is IDE unfortunately (older).

Do you have access to a desktop you could plug it into? Most IDE/ribbon cables on motherboards will already have a spare IDE output and power connectors.

leeham987 · 28th July 2011, 19:23

i had a browse on ebay and saw an IDE to Sata converter would that be any better?

also dont have access to a desktop, just another laptop which id rather not open up. is there a way i can get access to the harddrive using a usb device.

sorry im not that techie lol

Bound · 28th July 2011, 19:28

Uhh well not really without another PC, you've got to connect it to another computer somehow. If you're gonna buy anything for this you may as well buy a caddy, although I've only ever seen sata caddys I'm sure IDE ones exist. I suggested sata solutions cause that's what I thought it would be but that's out the window now, so new plan. Get access to a desktop PC, rip the side of, plug this hard drive into a spare IDE output and power connectors (there should be both of these spares probably coming of the DVD/CD drive, if not rip them out of the CD/DVD drive (you're not gonna need it) and into your hard drive. Don't forget to replace them afterwards. (although I can't see the standard four pin input on your hard drive when it is always next to the IDE input on desktop PC hard drives, hopefully this isn't some weird IDE powered hard drive? I don't even know if that exists, it probably doesn't)

leeham987 · 28th July 2011, 19:31

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-ID...item3a6884a7b5

may not be any use, but what does this do?

Bound · 28th July 2011, 19:33

From the looks of it, that would be like effectively plugging your hard drive into a USB port and treating it as an external hard drive/USB stick, which is fine, I just don't feel comfortable saying "yeah get that" having no experience of that product and not knowing if it works.