Laptop Hard Drive ???

  • Thread starter Thread starter jw
  • Start date Start date
J

jw

My son is in trouble. He knocked his girl friends's laptop onto the
floor and smashed the screen.

God almighty!

Anyway, all I have here are desktops, and wonder if I can connect her
hard drive from the laptop to my desktop as a second drive in order to
copy off her data, which seems to be astronomically important to her.
I see that as a temporary solution to at least preserve her data, but
I don't know what laptop HD connectors look like. I don't have a
laptop HD laying around. How hard is it to make that kind of
connection?

I guess to preserve this relationship, I could create a desktop she
can use while my she shops for a replacement laptop. What we do for
our survivors!

Duke
 
My son is in trouble. He knocked his girl friends's laptop onto the
floor and smashed the screen.

God almighty!

Anyway, all I have here are desktops, and wonder if I can connect her
hard drive from the laptop to my desktop as a second drive in order to
copy off her data, which seems to be astronomically important to her.
I see that as a temporary solution to at least preserve her data, but
I don't know what laptop HD connectors look like. I don't have a
laptop HD laying around. How hard is it to make that kind of
connection?

I guess to preserve this relationship, I could create a desktop she
can use while my she shops for a replacement laptop. What we do for
our survivors!

Duke
Click to expand...
Yes you can, but you need to find out which of the 2
possible drive types she has. It's either ide or sata.
Or you can buy one of these, which will work with any drive
type. This one is $20 from Newegg. watch the wrap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2&cm_re=vantec_adapter-_-12-232-002-_-Product
 
My son is in trouble. He knocked his girl friends's laptop onto the
floor and smashed the screen.

God almighty!

Anyway, all I have here are desktops, and wonder if I can connect her
hard drive from the laptop to my desktop as a second drive in order to
copy off her data, which seems to be astronomically important to her.
I see that as a temporary solution to at least preserve her data, but
I don't know what laptop HD connectors look like. I don't have a
laptop HD laying around. How hard is it to make that kind of
connection?

I guess to preserve this relationship, I could create a desktop she
can use while my she shops for a replacement laptop. What we do for
our survivors!

Duke
Click to expand...

There are many adaptors around that will enable you to do what you want.
Just google it and you will get many hits !

I have reused old drives from dead laptops by getting an external USB
case and using the drive in them as a portable drive. It is a cheap and
easy way to recycle them. Obviously you have to get one that is
compatible with your drive but it will be either IDE if older and most
newer ones are SATA. A quick google again will provide you with pictures
of the two so you can work out which you have.

Good Luck
bAZZ
 
Yes you can, but you need to find out which of the 2
possible drive types she has. It's either ide or sata.
Click to expand...

Oh yeh - I forgot to say that I am knowledgeable about SATA and PATA
connections in a desktop. In fact I have both right now. Sorry.
Or you can buy one of these, which will work with any drive
type. This one is $20 from Newegg. watch the wrap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2&cm_re=vantec_adapter-_-12-232-002-_-Product
Click to expand...


Hey - This looks like a winner. As long as the laptop HD connection
is a STANDARD PATA or SATA, which is something I do not know right
now.

Duke
 
There are many adaptors around that will enable you to do what you want.
Just google it and you will get many hits !

I have reused old drives from dead laptops by getting an external USB
case and using the drive in them as a portable drive. It is a cheap and
easy way to recycle them. Obviously you have to get one that is
compatible with your drive but it will be either IDE if older and most
newer ones are SATA. A quick google again will provide you with pictures
of the two so you can work out which you have.

Good Luck
bAZZ
Click to expand...


Thanks

Duke
 
Oh yeh - I forgot to say that I am knowledgeable about SATA and PATA
connections in a desktop. In fact I have both right now. Sorry.



Hey - This looks like a winner. As long as the laptop HD connection
is a STANDARD PATA or SATA, which is something I do not know right
now.
Click to expand...

It's worth noting that if it's SATA, no adapter is needed at all, you
can connect it directly to any desktop with a spare SATA power and data
port.

If it's PATA then you do need an adapter of some sort.
 
It's worth noting that if it's SATA, no adapter is needed at all, you
can connect it directly to any desktop with a spare SATA power and data
port.

If it's PATA then you do need an adapter of some sort.
Click to expand...

Tell me if I am wrong, but if it were PATA, I thought I could just
mount it as secondary master (or slave) inside my desktop. Do laptop
HDs have jumpers as do desktop HDs?

Duke
 
One thing to note, is that 2.5" laptop IDE drives have different
connectors than 3.5" IDE drives. The SATA connectors for
both 2.5" and 3.5" drives are identical. If the laptop's drive is
IDE, the best thing is to buy a cheap 2.5" IDE external drive
case as suggested by baZZ, then use that to copy the data
to the desktop. If the drive is 2.5", then you can attach it to
SATA and power connections from the desktop.

I assume that you know that you will have to install the OS
and applications on the desktop you're going to build, as the
OS installation on the laptop won't work on the desktop. Also,
even if you have the laptop OS disks, odds are they are BIOS
locked to the laptop, so you will need to obtain a new OS disk.
Click to expand...

Thanks for input.

I figured as much. All I want to do I think, is merely copy all of
her data to my desktop, and go from there. The choices would be to
configure a new desktop for her (which I have), or get her or buy her
a new laptop. That would include installation of some software too.
Then, either way, I can copy her precious data back into whatever
system she ends up with, thereby preserving my son's chances.

Duke
 
My son is in trouble. He knocked his girl friends's laptop onto the
floor and smashed the screen.

God almighty!

Anyway, all I have here are desktops, and wonder if I can connect her
hard drive from the laptop to my desktop as a second drive in order to
copy off her data, which seems to be astronomically important to her.
Click to expand...

Hold that thought - No need to go at it with a screw driver necessarily...
If the laptop has a VGA output connector on the back, you can plug it into
an external monitor and using a key combination, you should be able to see
the picture on the external monitor. The key combination is usually the 'Fn'
button and one of the F keys - my Dell is Fn + F8. The function key in
question will have a little picture of 2 screens or might say VGA on it, or
similar.

Google the model number and see if you can find the key combination.
 
Hold that thought - No need to go at it with a screw driver necessarily...
If the laptop has a VGA output connector on the back, you can plug it into
an external monitor and using a key combination, you should be able to see
the picture on the external monitor. The key combination is usually the 'Fn'
button and one of the F keys - my Dell is Fn + F8. The function key in
question will have a little picture of 2 screens or might say VGA on it, or
similar.

Google the model number and see if you can find the key combination.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I will try that when my son brings me the broken laptop.

Duke
 
My son is in trouble. He knocked his girl friends's laptop onto the
floor and smashed the screen.

God almighty!

Anyway, all I have here are desktops, and wonder if I can connect her
hard drive from the laptop to my desktop as a second drive in order to
copy off her data, which seems to be astronomically important to her.
I see that as a temporary solution to at least preserve her data, but
I don't know what laptop HD connectors look like. I don't have a
laptop HD laying around. How hard is it to make that kind of
connection?
Click to expand...

If its a sata hard drive in her laptop then its a piece of cake to hook the
drive up as a second drive. The connectors are the same with desktop and
laptop sata drives.
 
Somewhere said:
Thanks for input.

I figured as much. All I want to do I think, is merely copy all of
her data to my desktop, and go from there. The choices would be to
configure a new desktop for her (which I have), or get her or buy her
a new laptop. That would include installation of some software too.
Then, either way, I can copy her precious data back into whatever
system she ends up with, thereby preserving my son's chances.
Click to expand...

Duke, it irks me that you keep refering to her data as 'precious' in a way
that obviously implies that you don't think that it's as important as she
obviously does. Is your data important to you? Your klutz of a son destroyed
her computer and you're at least trying to do the right thing in restoring
her data but do you *have* to make it sound like she's not quite right in
the head for valuing her data (pics, email, writing...)?

Then again, perhaps that's the case as you talk about preserving your son's
chances. Going by what we know of his co-ordination skills this poor woman
might indeed be his only chance...

Good luck, to both of you.
 
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