My laptop died (motherboard died). I can't even turn on the computer. However, the hard drive inside is still fine. I can take the hard drive out of the laptop very easily. How can I get the data off this hard drive (mainly pictures and documents), and put it on my other computer that works fine?

6/16/2009 11:33:58 AM

http://www.google.com/search?q=transfer+laptop+hard+drive+to+desktop

6/16/2009 11:35:48 AM

how old is the laptop?

SATA - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392019 or desktop mobo
IDE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392012 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812203012

6/16/2009 11:40:53 AM

looks like I need an adaptor...

i was hoping i could do it without purchasing anything

6/16/2009 11:59:30 AM

those adapters are usually well worth it...pay $30 for something that you can use to salvage data off multiple HDDs

6/16/2009 12:03:52 PM

Quote :

"i was hoping i could do it without purchasing anything"

Magic?

6/16/2009 12:22:43 PM

my hard drive is
120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive (SATA)
which one do i need?

6/16/2009 1:51:42 PM

if your desktop is SATA, just plug it in.

6/16/2009 1:56:22 PM

Quote :

" Magic?"

Nah, I think he was looking for sarcastic asshole as the method of transfer.

6/16/2009 2:05:12 PM

120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive (SATA) is what I have...

i have a desktop that is also sata, but i don't understand how to plug it in?
Is there some type of adapter i can buy? how do i do the desktop method?

8/2/2009 11:03:58 PM

not trying to be an ass but just google it, http://www.ehow.com/how_4826945_install-second-sata-hard-drive.html. Your harddrive will not mount into your desktop. It takes 3.5 the one in your laptop is 2.5 but that shouldnt be a problem. I would just plug it up get the data, then take it out. you could always buy a 2.5 enclosure and have an extra external drive.

8/3/2009 2:28:06 AM

^that link doesn't work. I have been googling it but I can't find any instructions about it.

and i don't understand what you are trying to say. You say that it won't mount inside because different sizes, but then you say all i have to do is plug it in.

8/3/2009 7:36:36 AM

The physical size is different, however, they use the same data cable. The wide connector on the left is for power and you should possibly one one cable like that on your power supply, else you'll need a molex to sata power adapter.

Below is a molex to sata adapter, the sata connection is on the left.

8/3/2009 7:53:25 AM

OK, so basically my desktop needs to have an extra cable to hook my drive up to?

Can i just replace the drive that is in there with the laptop drive, or would i need to install it in addition to the one already there for it to work?

8/3/2009 7:59:36 AM

you MUST leave your original drive inside the desktop, since that's what's got your operating system on it (i realize your laptop drive has an OS, too, but it's configured for a different computer, so you can't simply use that drive in your desktop as the only hard drive)

you'll need two cables to make your laptop drive work inside your desktop...a second SATA data cable and a SATA power cable (or, as mentioned above, a molex adapter):



your hard drive will have connectors like this (ignore that the image is showing an optical drive...it's the same thing):



on your motherboard, you SHOULD have a cluster of SATA ports that look something like this (you might have 2 or 4 or 10, i don't know...they could be black, purple, red, or any other color):



you plug one end of the SATA data cable (the slim red one in the first picture) into the hard drive and the other end into the jack on the motherboard (which side doesn't matter, they're identical...though realize that they only fit into the jack one way)

if you power supply has a spare SATA power cable (the wide one in the second picture), you can just plug it in...if it doesn't, you'll need a molex adapter (the other cable in the first picture)...you can buy them just about anywhere, or you can have one of mine since i have eleventy billion of them

after the cables are hooked up, you just turn on your computer...your operating system will install the "drivers" for the hard drive when it gets into windows and it might tell you that you need to restart, but that's probably not true...just look in my computer and you should see the second drive

8/3/2009 8:19:48 AM

I'll do it for you for $20.

8/3/2009 8:31:27 AM

OK... I had a spare wide cable hanging out in my desktop, so i plugged it in. However, there is no skinny red one to plug in. So I only have 1 plug. I find that strange...why would it have one of the cables I need, but not the other. Attached is a cell phone picture. YOu can see that the wide cable is plugged in, and I have spare SATA ports at the bottom, but I don't have another skinny red cable

8/3/2009 8:57:38 AM

OK.. i just plugged the laptop hard drive into the desktop and took the other hard drive out and it worked fine. everything booted up fine just like it was my laptop and then i transferred files to a jump drive. thanks for the help

8/3/2009 11:33:43 AM

that really shouldnt have worked like that

but, cool.. lol

8/3/2009 12:24:35 PM

lol two months later.

8/3/2009 12:42:21 PM

Quote :

"that really shouldnt have worked like that but, cool.. lol"

8/3/2009 1:10:56 PM

Quote :

"that really shouldnt have worked like that but, cool.. lol"

agreed...but i thought that win7 allowed for this to happen (where you could pull an active drive out of one computer and put it in another and it would reconfigure itself)...maybe vista does this, too?



[Edited on August 3, 2009 at 1:20 PM. Reason : .]

8/3/2009 1:18:38 PM

what's weird is my coworker has been imaging hard drives with acronis lately and throwing them in new systems without using sysprep and it's also been working.

he's like 5 for 5 so far and I've had to eat crow.

8/3/2009 1:34:48 PM

i didn't think it would work either, but i said, what the heck i'll try it...

it booted up with my wallpaper from my laptop, everything looked like i was using my laptop.

the desktop runs XP and the laptop runs Vista...they were both HP so maybe that helped out

8/3/2009 3:47:47 PM

^It doesn't matter what OS the desktop was running, with that HDD in there, it's running Vista. XP gets really bitchy when you swap drives to completely different hardware.

8/3/2009 3:50:59 PM

Mmmm, crow.

8/3/2009 11:00:27 PM

^ delicious with foot

8/4/2009 8:06:43 AM