Hard Drive Help

[Papa Manual]

Hi,

I've googled this with little success so I thought I'd ask here. Basically, I have two old hard drives in an old desktop computer that’s entirely knackered. One is a really old 10gb drive (secondary) from donkeys years ago and the other (primary) is about 6 years old and about 120gb I seem to remember.

Basically, I’m not entirely sure whether the demise of my old PC was due to the primary hard drive giving up, but that’s kind of immaterial as I’ve got a new(ish) laptop now. What I need to do is get the data off these two old HDDs and onto my new external HDD, but I don’t have a desktop PC to connect these drives to and I don’t want to start dicking around with my friends setups. Is there any other way of doing this?

Jon

[Pashley26]

Can you not transfer the old hard drives to a folder on your new laptop, and then transfer them from there onto your external HD ?

That would be the easiest, then you'd just need to buy USB adapters to fit the HD's. (Nic and cheap)

Or am I missing the point ? Do you not want them to be transfered via your laptop ?

You'd need one of these, just one that was applicable to your previous HD's. http://www.amazon.co.uk/ANTEC-COOLED-ENCLO...N/dp/B000PJ4JDK

Edited October 6, 2008 by Pashley26

[Papa Manual]

The problem is that my old desktop PC is knackered. I have no way of getting the data off the HDDs (as they're in the old PC which is royally fooked) and on to my laptop. Not too bothered about the data going through my laptop on to the ext HDD but I can't see from a hardware perspective how I'm supposed to access the old HDDs.

EDIT: I've been told there's things called 'encasements' you can plug internal HDDs into and then transfer data via USB cable. Is this right? Doesn't seem like the right name for 'em .

[Pashley26]

The problem is that my old desktop PC is knackered. I have no way of getting the data off the HDDs (as they're in the old PC) and on to my laptop. Not too bothered about the data going through my laptop on to the ext HDD but I can't see from a hardware perspective how I'm supposed to access the old HDDs.

I've edited my original post to include one of these bad boy's -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ANTEC-COOLED-ENCLO...N/dp/B000PJ4JDK

You'll be needing one of those, but one thats got the right connections for your old HD's.

With them you can just plug your old HD in and it will read it as an external drive. So really you wouldn't even need to transfer the data. Maby just put the contents of the 10GB into the larger one.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

My guess is you'll need to have access to a desktop of some sort to be able to access the data on the old HDD's... Well, that's the cheapest option- steal a mate's for an evening! Otherwise one of those HDD enclosure's would do the job if they'll accept whatever connector they require.

[Papa Manual]

Cheers chaps, very much appreciated! There’s years of unedited footage and photos dating back to the 90’s I’d hate to lose.

[anzo]

I'm guessing this drive is IDE connection if it's really old? In which case Pashleys suggestion of the enclosure wouldn't work.

As said, borrow a friends computer and put he drive onto it and pull all the info from it. You could get an IDE external reader; but if its just going to be for the one off job, its not worth spending money!

[Revolver]

I'm guessing this drive is IDE connection if it's really old? In which case Pashleys suggestion of the enclosure wouldn't work

I got an IDE hard drive caddy/enclosure, mine's from ebuyer.

[Tomm]

You could get something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136250 . You would take your old hard drive out of the computer and then plug it into the new computer one via USB. It's £15, but you could use it again as a bigger external hard drive if you bought another drive to go in it.

Alternatively you could buy the ide-usb cable which would essentially do the same thing but without the case. Unfortunately they're not a lot cheaper than the enclosures. You might be able to get a cheaper one from eBay I suppose. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143274

Having said all that, if your computer just died suddenly, there's a pretty good chance it was the hard drive that stopped working. So it would be unlikely to work in the new computer with these adaptors. When you try and turn the old computer on, what happens? Any whirring, beeps, anything on the screen etc?

[Papa Manual]

It's been months since I've tried it as I have a new laptop, although I seem to remember it turned on as always and just died when it got to the Windows XP loading screen coming up with some message or other (very vague I know haha). I would be a bit gutted if the primary drive was fooked although the older stuff is on the ancient 10GB secondary drive, so either way it needs to be done.

[Tomm]

Could well be the hard drive. But if it's loading XP a little bit it means there's something there, so at least some may be retrievable.

It would be worth making sure that your current computer has an up-to-date virus checker before plugging the old drive in, too.

[Papa Manual]

Welllllll it's just before the XP logo comes up. Either way, one hard drive is better than non.

My laptop is virus checkered to the nuts so that's all good. Firewall is tighter than a camels ass in a sandstorm too (not that it matters - just wanted to use the phrase).

Thanks everyone .