Can I retrieve data from the hard drive of a dead laptop?

Question

I have a Dell Latitude laptop that has died, due to old age, and won't turn on. It's not worth getting it repaired as it was falling apart anyway, but I just wondered if there was any reasonably cheap and easy way of rescuing data from the hard drive.

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I found a 2.5" hard drive enclosure for under £10 on Ebuyer so will try this and see if it works.

Answer 1

look all you need is a (2.5" to 3.5" adapter) then you can plug it into your IDE cable on your regular machine (PC). you can get one for around $4 (delivered)to the US. I would guess that would be about £2. here is a couple examples:

http://www.adapterz.com/item.htm?id=60084
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNotebook-Desktop-Adapter-44-pin-Drives%2Fdp%2FB000BUB8TQ&tag=httpwwwdyna07-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

I have not dealt with any of these companies, and cannot endorse one. I recommend doing your own search and making your own decision. Last one I bought I got on Ebay (it probably will come from Hong Kong and take a few weeks to get, most likely) but again not recommending that as your choice. Do research, pick who makes you feel comfortable to buy from.

Also pay close attention to make sure you plug it in correctly and not back-wards. when you plug in the adapter there will be a set of pins on the drive separate, but right next to the connector, on the adapter there is usually a couple blank spots on the board these should be directly across from those pins. otherwise the power when plugged in will be going into the drive in the wrong place, that is probably very bad.

this is a USB adapter never used one but it looks like it has some functionality to it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FUSB-Cable-Adapter-2-5-Inch-3-5-Inch%2Fdp%2FB000I0VIYE&tag=httpwwwdyna07-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

Answer 2

You need to remove the hard drive from the machine, this is usually simple to do as the Hard drive is located in a compartment on its own and easily accessible by unscrewing a few screws.

It is in a ’drive-tray’ if you’re slotting it into another laptop that isn’t the same model as yours, you may need to unscrew the drive out of the tray and put it in the tray that comes from the other laptop.

It’ll be worth while knowing what ‘type’ of hard drive you have, most now days I think are S-ATA if you’re bought within the last two years, though it should say on the drive itself. One I bought in 2005 is an IDE. You can tell them apart by how the pins look. IDE drives are like a parallel connection pins that stick out, where as SATA look like flat-plated pins.

Depending on which one you have you can also look for a IDE/SATA 2.5” USB that will connect your hard drive like an external one, plugging it into a USB port and accessing all your data. If you choose to keep this drive as an external one you can get a drive cache for it.

Answer 3

Yes as long as the drive in the laptop isn't dead.

Laptops have 2.5 inch drives. You get a hard drive enclosure for 2.5" drives. You can connect the laptops drive to the hard disk enclosure. This can then be plugged into another PC via USB.

Answer 4

You can retrieve the data from the drive as long as the drive is not dead itself.

To do that, you can simply open the laptop take the drive and connect it to another computer, it should work fine.

Answer 5

Buy a USB2 2.5" removable drive, it will take your hard drive, connect to another PC and you should see the data

Answer 6

Yes...You can buy a hard drive enclosure (try maplins) which you connect through USB to another PC.You can retrive your data that way x

Answer 7

Lo último que compre fue un hard disk externo, siempre han sido de calidad los productos que he comprado en los sitios web pero esta compra ha pasado mis expectativos, un transporte muy rápido y un producto excelente de buena marca a un precio sin igual, seguramente la mejor compra.

Answer 8

You need am IDE to USB adapter; make it supports 2.5" hard drives - take out your laptop drive and connect it to another pc using the adapter
examples:
http://www.directusbstore.co.uk/cnb/shop/directusbstore?search=ide&op-catalogue-search-null=Go&op-catalogue-search-null=Go

Answer 9

Remove hard drive and plug it into another lap top.
I isn't like you'll break the lap top if you take it apart.

Answer 10

Try this link, it worked for me. You will need a laptop hard drive adapter.

Testdisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk