how to get info off my hard drive, computer power source is dead?

Question

My computer wont turn on, shot the wires with a multimeter and had no voltage out of any of the wires from the power source(not sure whats its called, where you plug the computer into the outlet). Checked the cord, its good. The computer is old anyways, wouldnt mind junking it but I have a ton of files I need off it (games/pictures/stuff) is there a way I can hook this hard drive to my laptop/another computer (Its a HP desktop if that helps, my mom has an HP as well, similar model but newer)

Answer 1

I always recommend an external hard drive enclosure in instances like this. It's simpler than opening up a PC and changing hard drive settings; once the old hard drive is placed in the enclosure, you connect it to the new PC over a USB cable, windows detects it, and it's assigned a new drive letter. I've done this several times for customers over the years and it works quite well and quite painlessly.

You can find enclosures at http://www.newegg.com, http://www.tigerdirect.com, or at circuit city, best buy, staples, office depot, or other eleftronics stores.

Answer 2

Sounds like the power supply has gone bad. Get a new power supply and put it in. It's not that hard to do. Everything will be good.

If not take the HDD out and put into another comp and retrieve the data.

Remember to set it up as the slave drive with the pins on the back of the drive.

Answer 3

I use a hard disk enclosure (about $40). It turns a hard drive into an external hard drive, powered through USB. You just put the hard disk in, plug it into the PC, and you're set. (This is if your old PC was a laptop)

Otherwise, you can just put the hard drive in the other computer if the cables are the same (depends on the age of the computers, some are IDE, some are ATA, some are SATA, you'll see when you open up the other computer)

Answer 4

Just put the old hard drive into a new computer. Most computers can have at least two hard drives. Just have someone do it for you or show you how. It's not hard.

Answer 5

If you want to do this on the CHEAP (i.e. free) you can always install the drive in your mother's system.

0) BEFORE STARTING - UNPLUG ALL POWER AND PERIPHERALS FROM YOUR COMPUTER.

1) Open your computer and find the HDD. It's probably a 3.5 inch drive, and will be connected by a very wide "ribbon" cable and a 4 wire "power harness" cable.

2) There are probably 2 to 4 screws holding it in place (on the sides). They will be small, silver, and have a Phillips head - remove them. Only 2 will be accessible from each side, so you may have to open the case completely (i.e. get access to both sides of the drive) to get them out.

3) Once the screws are out, gently remove the hard-drive from the caddy. You may have to carefully pull/pry the ribbon cable and power cable from the back to do this. If you can get it out without decabling it, then it makes it easier to get the cables off (you can usually get to the connectors easier).

4) On the BACK of the drive you will find a "jumper" block, usually with one jumper in it. You should also find a drawing somewhere on the drive that describes what the various "jumper pairs" mean. You will need to set the drive to SLAVE mode before you instll it. Use a pair of NEEDLE NOSED pliers to remove the jumper from it's current position and reposition it on the SLAVE pins.

5) Now you're ready to take this drive and try using it in another computer that already has a drive in it.

6) REMOVE ALL POWER AND DISCONNECT ALL PERIPHERALS FROM THE TARGET SYSTEM.

7) Open the target system and locate the drive bays. There should be at least ONE open slot in the drive bay.

8) Find the Ribbon cable that goes to the installed drive. Generally, these cables have multiple connectors on them. The connectors are KEYED - meaning you can't install them "upside down." Find the key, and the key-slot on your drive, so you know which way the cable should face.

9) Locate a power-harness plug. Any one that is the same shape as the power-input port on your hard drive will do - they are all standardized.

10) If you can - plug the ribbon cable and power harness into the hard drive BEFORE putting it into the drive bay - much easier, and less likely you'll bend any pins. If you can't get the ribbon cable in ahead of time, then place the power cable in and then put the drive in the bay, then attach the ribbon cable.

11) NOTE: Be extremely careful attaching the ribbon cable. You don't want to pull it loose from the already installed drive, and you don't want to damage the connector or bend any pins. The plastic connectors WILL pull apart if you tug on them too hard, and generally that means you may need a new cable.

12) Once the transplanted drive is in place, make sure you haven't accidentally loosened the cable on the original drive. Attach a screen, keyboard, mouse, and power to your system, and turn it on!

13) Assuming everything went as planned, your transplanted hard drive should now be available as the next drives in the system.

14) If everything powers up, and you can see the drive in explorer, shut down and screw the drive in place. Close everything up, reconnect everything - you're good to go.

NOTE: Most systems letter drives in the following order. Master partition on Master Drive - C: Additional partitions on Master Drive - D:, E:, etc. Master partition on Slave Drive, next available. CD Rom/DVD Rom Drives next.

One more thing. It is POSSIBLE that the original drive in the system you're transplanting to will have to be jumpered as a MASTER. That would require removing the original drive and setting the jumper according to the schematic ON THAT DRIVE. (Hence why we didn't close the case until the system booted fine - it's a pain in the butt to keep opening and closing the case...)

NEVER move any jumpers that you don't have too! Some older systems had a 32 Gig limit on their bios, so the drives are jumpered to limit the size. Change that jumper and you may not be able to access the data on the drive safely anymore.

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 6

1) Open case of old computer. 2) Disconnect two cables from back of old hard drive. KEEP the data cable. 3) Unscrew hard drive from old case 4) Open case of NEW computer 5) Find any open 3.5" drive bay and mount the old hard drive, using screws from old case. 6) Connect two cables to back of hard drive. For a data cable, you can use the one you removed from the old computer, if necessary. DONE! However, if your new computer boots from the OLD hard drive, you will have to hit the reset switch to reboot and (while computer is booting) access boot menu. It might be F12 or something like that (watch for the prompt) After data is copied from old hard drive, format it and then use it as a backup data drive.

Answer 7

Take the hard drive out of the old computer.
Take it to the other computer
Unplug the two cables to the CD temporarily, and put the old drive in its place
Boot up the computer and you should be able to see the old drive
Move whatever you want to keep to the other drive
Take out the old drive and reattach the CD drive

Answer 8

how to view and download information (pics and videos) off unmarked CD's