I had collected a number of cases to do what you describe (and to use hard drives like supersized floppy disks for backups), then switched to a $10 USB to IDE/SATA cable adapter I found. It's more flexible, especially for "one of" uses of a drive like you describe.
Will this work even if the laptop see's no drive? I got the blue screen of death and on reboot it can not find a drive... Thanks
sbspalding
· 1 year ago
It should work unless the hard drive itself is damaged
Maggy Young
· 1 year ago
When the harddrive is damaged it should make clunking sounds on reboot. If no clunk, it should be ok.
Christian
· 1 year ago
This is exactly what I've been planning to do since December, when the tech people out here in Mongolia told me I'd have to take my laptop to Moscow to repair it (they said even Beijing doesn't have the equipment to fix a motherboard broken in the particular way mine is...).
It just seemed like common sense to me, but I guess it might not to everyone.
TigerTom
· 1 year ago
It's the era of disposable everything.
This is a good idea. There are lots of these little external hard-drive caddies available very cheaply, whereas hands-on help from a technician can be very expensive.
Jolin
· 1 year ago
Are you kidding us?
Used Cheap Laptops
· 1 year ago
This looks great, too bad I was one of the people that spent the $100 a couple of months ago. Glad I found this blog, will subscribe. Thanks JR
aaron
· 1 year ago
An HD enclosure saved my life, basically. Good post.
Atlanta PC Repair Guy
· 1 year ago
Make sure you get the enclosure that can handle your drive. Keep in mind there are different connectors. IDE, Ultra ATA, Serial ATA, Parallel ATA. They actually sell external cases that will handle all 3, they cost around $20 at specialty stores.
Keep in mind, now you have an external hard drive, so you can use that hard drive to back up data, etc.
sbspalding
· 1 year ago
Absolutely, great additions.
Ps3
· 1 year ago
Really useful thanks But how about jsut keeping a back up on a simpletech drive o somehtign liek that :P
Sanjeev Mehra
· 1 year ago
Nice trick , it would come in handy most of the times but the only issue is people should be able to remove the hard drive and attach the USB port to a working computer properly.
Mark Sear
· 1 year ago
This is one approach but needs to be done with care. It is easy to damage a disk when removing it and fitting it into another enclosure, and if the actual problem is hardware related it is not going to help. There is also the risk that repeated attempts to access data from a disk where the problem is down to internal damage could be making the situation worse, in fact unrecoverable. It is worth getting advice from someone who understands how hard disks work and who might be able to determine the problem from your description of the symptoms. I work for a data recovery company, I can assure you that a recovery when there is a hardware or serious logical problem will cost a lot more than $100, but any recovery company who takes money when there is not really an issue is not playing fair. Of course keeping a backup is the best option.
sbspalding
· 1 year ago
This is really excellent advice, and anyone who is jumping into data recovery (especially in less than simple cases) would do well to heed it.
iPod
· 1 year ago
Thanks for this. Recently my cousin spilt beer on his father's laptop. This method may just come in handy!
John
Laptop AC Adapter
· 11 months ago
Great tip :) It's such a pain if your adapter dies and you can't wait to access your data from your laptop until you can find a new one!
All Comments
Here's one like what I have:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020&ca...
It just seemed like common sense to me, but I guess it might not to everyone.
This is a good idea. There are lots of these little external hard-drive caddies available very cheaply, whereas hands-on help from a technician can be very expensive.
Thanks
JR
Keep in mind, now you have an external hard drive, so you can use that hard drive to back up data, etc.
But how about jsut keeping a back up on a simpletech drive o somehtign liek that :P
There is also the risk that repeated attempts to access data from a disk where the problem is down to internal damage could be making the situation worse, in fact unrecoverable.
It is worth getting advice from someone who understands how hard disks work and who might be able to determine the problem from your description of the symptoms. I work for a data recovery company, I can assure you that a recovery when there is a hardware or serious logical problem will cost a lot more than $100, but any recovery company who takes money when there is not really an issue is not playing fair.
Of course keeping a backup is the best option.
recovery (especially in less than simple cases) would do well to heed it.
John