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Laptop Data Recovery?

Posted by Cliff on from the when-the-rest-of-it-is-just-inert-plastic dept.

Unhappy Camper asks: "I had a Presario 1800 laptop go bad. A couple of months out of the 1 yr warranty. The local Compaq approved repair shop blames a bad power connection at system board. Their proposed solution: $1500 replacement system board. I could replace the laptop for less. What are my options to recover data off of the functional hard drive? The computer works, but it doesn't get a charge from the battery or a wall outlet. Does anyone know of a $200 rig to allow me to connect it to a desktop IDE controller/USB slot/whatever?"

33 comments

  1. Just go buy an adapter by Figaro · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can only assume it's got a standard 2.5" IDE harddrive. Just go to a decent computer parts shop and buy an adapter, it'll cost like $20 bucks.

    OTOH: If you want to spend $200, I've got one available.

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    :wq
  2. How about $12.00 dollars... by RadioheadKid · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well I think this is what you are looking for. All its doing is supplying power to the 2.5" connector power pins from the desktop PSU and converting the form factor of the 2.5" to a 3.5" IDE connector...I've seen these things in other places too, you can probably get them even cheaper...

    --
    "Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
    1. Re:How about $12.00 dollars... by sigwinch · · Score: 4, Informative
      Cablesonline has the electrical adapter by itself for $8. It'll work if you just need to hook the drive up for a few minutes to suck the data off. Just be carefult not to short out the exposed circuit board on the drive. FWIW, I ordered a buttload of IDE paraphenalia from them back in February and was pleased with the ordering process, merchandise quality, and delivery time. (Which I mention only because some of these online "stores" can't seem to find their asses with both hands, a map, an instructional video, and a 25 hour remedial course in applied ass-finding.) They also have all sorts of ribbon cable, IDC connectors, and gender changers for the 3.5" and 2.5" IDE standards.

      Regarding the broken laptop system board, I'd see if somebody could repair it (somebody who actually knows how to use a soldering iron, not one of these swap-out-the-board-depot monkeys (no offense)). Unless the circuit board itself is broken, it's probably salvegable. (And even then, with a little bailing wire and luck.) If it was me, I'd already have the soldering iron warming up, but then I do have a rather hands on approach.

      --

      --
      Kuro5hin.org: where the good times never end. ;-)

  3. Another source by pdawson · · Score: 3, Informative

    Computergeeks.com has 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapters for $3.65 +sh as well, which is what you want to use to plug your old drive into a standard desktop system.

    http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HD-1 08

  4. Don't forget! by clark625 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Most everyone and his brother is recommending that you use a simple IDE adapter. Do this.

    Once that's done, SELL YOUR FRIGGIN' LAPTOP! I'm not kidding here. Put the thing on E-Bay for $50 to start; say what's wrong and don't offer any guarantee :) If you're not wanting to fix that laptop, I can bet that someone will. Please, for the rest of us that love to play with "dead" electronics, sell this baby to someone that could get some use out of it. Or, if you prefer, try and fix it yourself. I'm sure you could get some help from those of us here on /. :)

    --
    Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
    1. Re:Don't forget! by larien · · Score: 2

      It's probably not a bad idea; someone might have a laptop with a bust screen, but the internals are fine. Take the two together and voila! A working laptop! Either sell yours or search for one with working bits.

  5. 12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by Night0wl · · Score: 1

    You're dealing with a non FAT(32/16)/NTFS partition in a windows enviroment?

    I hate to be a question grubby whore... But your question has been answered, and sence we're all here I'd like to pick some minds ;)

    Same thing here really, 2.5" laptop HD. But out of a PowerBook 5300c. Any hints for a chubby computer use who hasn't had much cross-platform envolvement?

    I'd love to recover the 16MB of porn, and some 4 year old emails off of the drive. But can't find a method to access the data. I already knew about the conversion kits. :)

    Btw. laptop Hd's use the same number of pins as there larger brothers and sisters, plus four, for power.

    The pinout is the same, but if I recall properly there is one pair of pins switched... Google is your friend. I hope I don't regret that by getting a link on google pointing to my solution, asuming any one bothers to help someone, in someone elses Ask slashdot. ;)

    Ask slashdot, Ask slashdotters, what's the difference?

    --
    Computational Madness in a round package.
    1. Re:12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by RGRistroph · · Score: 1

      I believe all you have to do is pop it in a linux machine and mount it with filesystem type hfs. Hfs is the "Hierarchical File System" which is what Mac's use.

      According to the specs I found on the web, your machine had an IDE drive. This makes it easy to find a machine to plug it into. At one point I believe most Mac's were scsi machines.

      So it's the same simple $12 solution, except you have to have compiled "hfs" amoung the files system types in your kernel.

    2. Re:12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by Night0wl · · Score: 1

      Let us pretend I don't have a linux box up and running at the moment, which wouldn't be a lie.

      Any thoughts then?
      I may have another bit of inspiration though to put linux on this old comp I've got lyin around.

      --
      Computational Madness in a round package.
    3. Re:12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by RGRistroph · · Score: 1
      I remember seeing a television commercial that ran in Texas during the late 70s. It advertised an oil drilling services company, the type of outfit you'd hire to keep parts and pipe supplied to a drilling site. The commercial claimed decades of experience and pleased customers, and ended with the exhortation "You say you don't have an oil well ? Well GET ONE!!!"

      I believe that applies in this case.

      But should you not wish to get linux installed on a machine, look at these links (obtained by the google search on "Reading an HFS disk on Windows") :

      HFS Utilities Homepage

      Port of hfsutils to DOS

      Good luck and have fun.

    4. Re:12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Emergency boot floppy. Same great taste, less filling.

    5. Re:12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by penguinboy · · Score: 2

      If you have access to a reasonably fast internet connection and CD burner, you can go download and burn the SuperRescue ISO. It's a fully-featured RedHat install put onto a bootable CD. You can start up with this in most any system, mount the HFS drive, and transfer the files elsewhere - either to another hard drive or to a location on the network. I did this exact procedure just last week. Granted, I do have working Linux boxes around, but the most convenient box to hook the drive up to didn't have a functional Linux install at the time.

    6. Re:12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by Night0wl · · Score: 1

      Here's the thing though, same situation. It's a HD I'm hooking up to your standard 40 pin IDE setup.

      The laptop wont power on any more, and to pay for repairs would be twice the cost of the laptop it's self at current prices, or so I assume. It's an old laptop.

      So gutting the laptop, seeing what neat things I can salvage, and rescuing a laptop sized 500mb hd and it's data will be a good thing.

      --
      Computational Madness in a round package.
    7. Re:12$ Solution, Simple, but what if... by fezzikola · · Score: 1

      It's more than one pair swapped, it's the regular pin layout with pins 1&2 swapped, 3&4, 5&6 etc. all the way down (plus the power pins).

  6. Come on... by sdb6247 · · Score: 1

    This smells like a post simply to get posted on Slashdot... stupid. This would have taken a simple search on Google to find the answer, and you guys post it where thousands of readers can say "Duh".

    Seriously.

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    ---- Please flame below this line ----
  7. It was useful to me... by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 2

    The actual post wasn't, but someone gave me a new link (http://www.compgeeks.com) that I didn't have before and they have some great deals. I just saved about $40 on parts!

    Sometimes, the main post itself isn't half as useful as the posts from the /. community.

    --
    The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
    1. Re:It was useful to me... by damiam · · Score: 1

      If you're looking for great deals, go to pricewatch.com.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  8. Try calling Compaq by duffbeer703 · · Score: 2

    and purchasing an additional two-year warranty for like $150, then wait two weeks and send the thing in.

    Vendors love selling extended warranties!

    --
    Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
  9. TransMac by stinkydog · · Score: 2

    Download a Windows HFS conversion utility like Transmac. Copy the files. Done.

    SD

    --
    âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
  10. THE solution by robvasquez · · Score: 0


    Solutions to your problem

    Neat little USB-IDE device:
    http://www.allusb.com/products/P10705.html

    Rather have FIREWIRE?
    http://www.fastware.net/a0800/compare_kits.html

    Here's a adapter with drive rails
    http://www.hitechcafe.com/eshop/product.asp?dept_i d=1&sku=MSC2.5ADA

    Ways to make sure it doesn't happen again

    Buy the better built, longer warranty, Corporate model machines. Usually a 3 year instead of a 1 year.

    Typically, I am against the 3 year SUPER SERVICE PLAN offered by the chain stores. But for a laptop, or very expensive item, they're not too bad of an idea.

    Compaq PRESARIO? Are you nuts?

    1. Re:THE solution by toast0 · · Score: 1

      their nicest (in my opinion, probably because its the one i've got) corporate laptop, the e500, also only comes w/ a 1 year warranty. If I personally bought it, I'd probably go with an extened service plan, laptops can get all sorts of brain damage, and I know I'd make use of the warranty. (If nothing else, near the end of the warranty period, I could say 'hey my lcd got a dead pixel' and watch them squirm :)

      --
      Need a Catering Connection
  11. Easy recovery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    What are my options to recover data

    Gee, no one has stated the obvious. Take your most recent full backup, apply incremental backups, and you are back in business! Seriously, you should have current backups.

    Now when did I last backup my stuff...

  12. LET this be a warning! by His+name+cannot+be+s · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When buying a laptop, purchase at _least_ up to 2 years, and realistically 3 years of warranty protection.. Its quite inexpensive...

    I Bought a DELL Inspiron 8000 laptop, loaded 512 mb ram, cdrw and dvd, 30 gig hd p3-850, 15" 1600X1400 screen, etcc.. cost me $8000 canadaian, including the 3 year complete care warranty($200ish)..

    The complete care warrantee will replace anything that wasn't done on purpose... Accidentally drop the laptop, and break the screen, it's replaced.

    what is covered

    Don't be cheap, pay for the protection next time...

    --
    "...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
    1. Re:LET this be a warning! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn you got ripped off. You should have bought the minimum ram and bought it from Crucial.com. I bought half a gig of laptop ram for 99$.

      I've got some ocean front property in Afghanistan if you're interested.

    2. Re:LET this be a warning! by Zurk · · Score: 2

      yes..i'll second this. bought a panasonic toughbook and when the LCD backlight failed no one was willing to repair it (didnt have a warranty). either get an expensive laptop with a warranty or buy a dirt cheap one withouyt a warranty that you can afford to replace. My current laptop is now a P-100 which cost $150 (runs linux fine and does TCP/IP which is all i really needed). my toughbook is relegated to being a desktop with a full desktop monitor attached to it.

  13. DN-Boy by PhilHibbs · · Score: 2

    I've got one of these little beauties in my machine. A bay with a removable cartridge that holds the 2.5" drive, and a PCMCIA card and cable that connects to the same cartridge. The only snag is that the cartridge is powered from a PS2 keyboard wedge when external, and my Vaio C1 doesn't have a keyboard port!

  14. Suggestion by biglig2 · · Score: 2

    See if you can borrow another laptop from someone else for a couple of hours.

    Then drop your HDD into it, and squirt your data out via LAN, removeable drive, or even a null modem cable.

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    ~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
  15. converter by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 2

    Had this happen at me last job, and me boss (hi Jeremy!) found a really really neat thingy. You plug it into a laptop HD, and the other end is standard IDE and four pin AT/ATX power. Then you can plug it into any old PC.

    --
    Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  16. laptop hard drive adapter by vaguelyamused · · Score: 1

    Real cheap. $3.46 on compgeeks.com.

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    STOP ROCK VIDEO