How to Recover Data From the Hard Drive of a Dead Laptop
The greatest feature of our laptop computers--portably holding our precious data and files--also becomes our most horrific nightmare when we can no longer access the material. Thankfully, as long as your laptop didn't die due to hard drive failure, it is a relatively painless process to retrieve that valuable information.
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Things You'll Need
- Laptop 2.5 inch to Desktop 3.5 inch hard drive IDE adapter kit
- 2.5 inch USB 2.0 or Firewire drive enclosure
Instructions
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Using a Laptop Hard Drive Adaptor Kit
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1
Obtain a laptop hard drive adapter kit. To allow laptop data cloning, it must convert from a Laptop 2.5 inch to a Desktop 3.5 inch Hard Drive IDE, connecting the laptop hard drive to the desktop with an IDE cable. This will work for most laptop computers, including Dell, Sony and IBM.
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2
Locate a PC with the ability to read your laptop's file system. In other words, make sure the desktop computer is current enough to understand your laptop's language. A PC from 10 years ago will not be able to read a new laptop's hard disk drive (HDD) as its programming language would include details the PC wouldn't understand.
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3
Open the PC's casing.
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4
Insert the adapted laptop drive as a secondary HDD.
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5
Set this secondary drive to Slave or Cable Select, depending on your system.
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6
Copy the desired laptop data onto the main drive of the PC.
Using a USB or Firewire Port
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7
Obtain a 2.5 inch USB 2.0 or Firewire drive enclosure.
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8
Locate a PC with an open USB port, or firewire port, current enough to read your laptop's file system.
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Connect it to the PC.
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10
Copy the desired laptop data onto the main drive of the PC.
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Tips & Warnings
Laptop hard drive adapter/converter kits are relatively inexpensive.
USB adaptors allow you to access your laptop HDD information without opening the case on a PC.
