- Purchase a "Laptop Hard Drive Adaptor Kit" to allow you to plug your laptop hard drive into a standard PC (2.5 TO 3.5 inch IDE HDD).
- Find a functioning standard PC that can read the file system that was on the laptop. One would need Windows 2k/XP or a Linux distribution to read an NTFS/FAT file system, whereas only a Linux distribution can read the EXT3 file system.
- Open up the case and add the laptop drive with adaptor kit as a secondary HDD. Be sure that you have set this drive to either Cable Select, or Slave, depending on the configuration of the system, and the available IDE ports.
- Copy the data you need from the laptop drive to the main drive of the PC, or consider using removable storage for small files.
- Purchase or cannibalize a 2.5" USB 2.0 or Firewire drive enclosure.
- Find a functioning standard PC with an open USB port (or firewire port, as applicable) that can read the file system that was on the laptop. One would need Windows 2k/XP or a Linux distribution to read an NTFS/FAT file system, whereas only a Linux distribution can read the EXT3 file system.
- Plug it in, wait for the tones (and/or mount it if that is necessary in this system)
- Copy the data you need from the laptop drive to the main drive of the PC, or consider using removable storage for small files.
Attention
- Don't despair if you are not able to read the contents of the drive. Check your connections, be sure that the drive was detected in BIOS, and try again.
- In Linux, be sure to mount the file system as read-only before attempting. NTFS file systems can only be opened by default in read-only mode, without additional packages.
- Laptop Hard Drive Adaptor Kit 2.5 TO 3.5 inch IDE HDD
- OR A 2.5" USB 2.0 or Firewire drive enclosure.
- A few small screwdrivers
- A compatible PC with an available power and IDE connection.
- An external HDD enclosure for an IDE disk (optional).
No comments:
Post a Comment