hardware newbie: how do I connect my laptop to a crashed desktop hardrive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter kinane3
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kinane3

Hardware is still new to me although I'm a programmer so I'll be a
quick study. My dad's computer crashed and I want to connect to his
hardrive with my laptop to figure out what happened.

Thanks!
 
Hardware is still new to me although I'm a programmer so I'll be a
quick study. My dad's computer crashed and I want to connect to his
hardrive with my laptop to figure out what happened.
Click to expand...

You can get an USB adapter for the harddrive, I can't point to any
specific model or brand as I don't know where in the world you live.
 
You can get an USB adapter for the harddrive, I can't point to any
specific model or brand as I don't know where in the world you live.
Click to expand...

He's somewhere in the vicinity of Rochester, New York, USA.
 
Sam is correct...shall I provide Earth coordinates as well? ;-)
Assuming my yahoo profile was where you found that....

ok, I want to be clear. All I have to do is aquire this device and I
can connect to his internal, primary C drive so I can either fish
around or back up what's on there? Seems too easy, is this all there
is to this? If it is then great but I need to be sure.

Thanks again!
 
ok, I want to be clear. All I have to do is aquire this device and I
can connect to his internal, primary C drive so I can either fish
around or back up what's on there? Seems too easy, is this all there
is to this? If it is then great but I need to be sure.
Click to expand...

Offcourse it depends how his computer crashed. If the filesystem is
damaged it might not work, or you might need special tools to restore
it. For that I cannot help.
 
Thomas said:
Offcourse it depends how his computer crashed. If the filesystem is
damaged it might not work, or you might need special tools to restore
it. For that I cannot help.
Click to expand...

And if the data is very important and it's a physical fault with the
disk don't farts around with it: have a professional handle it. Next
time make regular backups.

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
damaged it might not work, or you might need special tools to restore
it. For that I cannot help.
Click to expand...

Actually I might be able to help there too. I have successfully
repaired a defective harddrive with SpinRite before:
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

But I don't think it will work with an USB harddrive so you have to
make a DOS disk and repair from your fathers computer. And expect it
to work very slow, the harddrive I repaired took more than a day if I
remember correctly. And finally it doesn't do miracles, replace the
harddrive as soon as possible.
 
Sam is correct...shall I provide Earth coordinates as well? ;-)
Assuming my yahoo profile was where you found that....
Click to expand...

To put you at ease, no real "snooping" was done.

From your post's headers:

NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.24.42.39

nslookup
Hostname: cpe-24-24-42-39.rochester.res.rr.com
IP Address: 24.24.42.39

Some ISPs don't include that information. Comcast does.
 
Sam is correct...shall I provide Earth coordinates as well? ;-)
Assuming my yahoo profile was where you found that....

ok, I want to be clear. All I have to do is aquire this device and I
can connect to his internal, primary C drive so I can either fish
around or back up what's on there? Seems too easy, is this all there
is to this? If it is then great but I need to be sure.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

You understand that you will need to remove the drive from the problem
computer and install it into the USB enclosure, right? It sounds above
like you expect to just run an adapter to the back of the problem PC and
connect to the harddrive.
 
I didn't until I looked it up but I get it now. assuming that these
act as power supplies for the drive as well
 
I didn't until I looked it up but I get it now. assuming that these
act as power supplies for the drive as well
Click to expand...

External enclosures for 3.5" drives come with wall warts to supply the
power while ones for 2.5" drives (usually found in laptops) merely rely on
the USB connection for power (some use a second USB cable for that.)
 
You can use a program called PCAnywhere.It'll give you access to everything
on the PC you want to look at.
Or if you are right there you can network the two together using just a
straight through cable between ethernet ports.
 
,;Hardware is still new to me although I'm a programmer so I'll be a
,;quick study. My dad's computer crashed and I want to connect to his
,;hardrive with my laptop to figure out what happened.
Click to expand...

I bought this item (5227954377) on ebay from adapterz.

Go to ebay and search for "ide to usb". Be sure to get one with the
laptop HD adapter.
 
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