How do you recover data from a non-working computer?

Question

I have a lap-top that no longer turns on but I have years of data on it and I want to transfer it to another computer. There is just one thing, I don't know how to do that. Any takers?

Answer 1

The solution is not as easy as putting it into another computer. My suggestion does cost a little money because you really should set the drive up as an external drive, so that from another operating computer you can hook the old drive up via firewire or usb, and access it like you would a data drive. At this point, then, you can take what data you need from it without disturbing the other parts of the drive.

Taking the drive out and putting back into a new laptop may not necessarily work. The hardware found in the 2nd laptop may not allow or be compatible with the old hard drive.

If the hard drive itself is the thing that is dead or damaged, the the external solution is really the only one you have, as the operating system on it may be trying to access parts of the drive that are damaged. However, as an external drive, running into these bad parts of the drive would not affect the function of the primary operating system and you would be able too retreive data that was not affected by damage.

So if you are interested in this suggestion, go and buy a 2.5" external hard drive enclosure. If you have firewire hardware on the computer you will be using to access the drive, get an enclosure with a firewire interface, or one with dual interfaces of USB2 and Firewire.

The benefit of going Firewire is that you can hook up video cameras to it, so I recommend firewire.

Once you have the enclosure, follow the instructions to put your old hard in it, hook up the enclosure to your new computer, and access your data!



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Answer 2

Well you need to extract the hard drive. Since the computer isnt working, you dont need to worry about opening it up and then closing it again and have it still work properly or voiding warranty. Go on the bottom of your laptop and find a little clip or pin that will allow you to open up the case and when inside, just find the hard drive and remove all of the cables attached. Simply, reattach inside the case of a desktop and retrieve the data.

Answer 3

You will need a special adapter because notebook harddrives have differnet connectors than desktop harddrive.

Something like this...
http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Desktop-Adapter-44-pin-Drives/dp/B000BUB8TQ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-5084810-0572415?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1184773302&sr=8-1

Then when your desktop reads it, then copy the data you need over to the desktop harddrive.

You can also plug it into another similar notebook's harddrive without the adapter.

Answer 4

Take out the hard drive and put it into or hook it up to another computer.