copying hard drive

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Help!! I only know enough to be dangerous. My old Dell laptop is having
spasms...will only sign on to the Windows XP "loading"page and go no further.
Is there any way I can hook a USB cable up between the lap top and my desk
top and copy the C drive, or at least some folders FROM the C drive? There
are somethings I would like to recover, but not for the $500 price the data
recovery company wants!!

thanks
 
LoriNTroy said:
Help!! I only know enough to be dangerous. My old Dell laptop is having
spasms...will only sign on to the Windows XP "loading"page and go no further.
Is there any way I can hook a USB cable up between the lap top and my desk
top and copy the C drive, or at least some folders FROM the C drive? There
are somethings I would like to recover, but not for the $500 price the data
recovery company wants!!

thanks
Click to expand...

You can buy a $20.00 USB case for your laptop disk, then connect
it to your desktop and copy the lot.

You should use this event as an opportunity to review your backup
practice. Considering a backup when disaster is staring you in the
face is a bad habit. Important files must be backed up to an
independent medium frequently, e.g. once a week.
 
Okay,

I have learned my lesson about the back up part...I have already bought the
back up program. I also bought the USB cable....I have it connected between
the two computers, but what command/function do I use to accomplish the
"copy"? I expected to find another drive listed in the "My Computer" page,
but not there...just C and D.....will I still be able tocopy even though the
lap top just keeps cycling and cycling and won't initialize?

thanks for answering so quick
 
if the computer doesnt start up then it wont show up as another drive.
I would reccomend going to www.dealsonic.com and purchasing a harddrive
enclosure. Then the computer will show up as a drive. Anyway,
external enclosures are just overall the best thing to have around in
case of accidents, just pop the harddrive in and take what you want off.
 
Hmm. It seems you went off at a tangent. I recommended that
you install your laptop disk in a 2.5" USB enclosure, then
connect it to a functioning desktop. Your response suggests
that you're still trying to revive your laptop, then copy your
files across with a USB connection. You can spend a lot
of time doing this, with a remote chance of success. If you
try the external USB enclosure then your chances of success
are very high, provided that the file system on your laptop
disk is intact (which it usually is, even when WinXP will no
longer start).

The choice is yours.
 
Help!! I only know enough to be dangerous. My old Dell laptop is having
spasms...will only sign on to the Windows XP "loading"page and go no further.
Is there any way I can hook a USB cable up between the lap top and my desk
top and copy the C drive, or at least some folders FROM the C drive? There
are somethings I would like to recover, but not for the $500 price the data
recovery company wants!!

thanks
Click to expand...

I have had one dead notebook drive. if everything fails, you may yet try
this: (it was like a mirecle, helped me, and i got all my data back!)

1. buy a coverter from notebook harddisk to IDE (it costs about $10 or
so, but if you tell them you will buy another harddrive from them after,
they might borrow you the adapter for free of charge;)
2. connect the notebook hardrive to extra IDE cable, it should be
detected on boot by bios and then you shoud see it as another letter in
windows explorer normally without any drivers.
3. if bios (and window also then) will fail to detect the harddrive, be
sure you have set in bios the AUTO option for secondary IDE (or where
you are going to connect it)
4. if it won't help, place the harddisk to a freezer for 15 minutes or
so (no, i'm not kidding!) and then connect to ide again. now you should
be lucky. hurry up, because as temperature raises, the harddisk becomes
unreadable once again, so maybe you will have to repeat that freezer
trick more times before you will be able to copy everything

Good luck,
Y.
 
Yandos said:
I have had one dead notebook drive. if everything fails, you may yet try
this: (it was like a mirecle, helped me, and i got all my data back!)

1. buy a coverter from notebook harddisk to IDE (it costs about $10 or
so, but if you tell them you will buy another harddrive from them after,
they might borrow you the adapter for free of charge;)
2. connect the notebook hardrive to extra IDE cable, it should be
detected on boot by bios and then you shoud see it as another letter in
windows explorer normally without any drivers.
3. if bios (and window also then) will fail to detect the harddrive, be
sure you have set in bios the AUTO option for secondary IDE (or where
you are going to connect it)
4. if it won't help, place the harddisk to a freezer for 15 minutes or
so (no, i'm not kidding!) and then connect to ide again. now you should
be lucky. hurry up, because as temperature raises, the harddisk becomes
unreadable once again, so maybe you will have to repeat that freezer
trick more times before you will be able to copy everything

Good luck,
Y.
Click to expand...

While the $10.00 cable converter costs only half as much as a USB
case, the OP needs to be aware that he must use it with extreme
caution. If he connects it back to front then he will fry his laptop
disk. This problem does not exist with the USB case.
 
LoriNTroy said:
Okay,

I have learned my lesson about the back up part...I have already bought the
back up program. I also bought the USB cable....I have it connected between
the two computers, but what command/function do I use to accomplish the
"copy"? I expected to find another drive listed in the "My Computer" page,
but not there...just C and D.....will I still be able tocopy even though the
lap top just keeps cycling and cycling and won't initialize?

thanks for answering so quick
Click to expand...

You seem to have misunderstood the instructions from Pegasus.

1. You need to purchase an external USB 2.5 inch hard drive
enclosure. See http://www.xpcgear.com/ue240enclosure.html for an
illustration of this type of device.

2. You need to remove the hard drive from your laptop and install it
into the enclosure. Then you can connect it to your PC.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
 
thank you, this seems a bit more simplified and I can follow this...when I
went to the other web site for a hard drive enclosure, there were hundreds of
different types and I had no idea what I needed, your link was to a specific
model and I will order that and try as you suggested. Not sure what
"tangent" I had gotten off on, my first post said that Windows would not
initialize, and Pegasus' first reply to me said nothing about an
"enclosure"...I guess I just don't speak "computer" well enough to explain
myself or understand. I feel confident that I can follow your suggestion,
though...thanks for your help.

Lori
 
My first reply said "USB case" instead of "USB enclosure".
To me that's pretty much the same thing!

Instead of getting overwhelmed by hundreds of different
types of enclosures visible on the net, why don't you just
go to your friendly computer store and ask for one?

After you have installed your laptop disk in this case / enclosure,
connect it to any WinXP/2000 PC. It will then be visible
as an extra drive in Explorer or in My Computer.
 
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