How can I connect a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer so I can recover, transfer files?
Yesterday my laptop failed to boot. Everything appears to be normal but each time I turn it on it hangs on Windows screen with a running bar. I cannot boot my laptop to the desktop. I tested the hard drive and it passed the test. I think that my hard drive is fine and the operating system is corrupted. I have very important files in my documents and I need to recover, transfer them to the desktop computer as soon as possible. How can I connect the laptop hard drive to a desktop computer?
It is nice that your hard drive passed the test. I think you have very good chances that your data is still good and you would be able to transfer it to the desktop computer. Here are some tips for connecting a laptop hard drive to a desktop computer:
1. You can use 2.5” hard drive adapter and connect the laptop hard drive directly to a desktop computer through the IDE connector on the system board. The desktop hard drive would be connected to IDE1 so you can connect the laptop hard drive to IDE2. After you boot the desktop computer the second hard drive would be detected and you can access it as a regular HDD. Now you can recover, transfer all needed files from the laptop hard drive to the desktop hard drive. Here are detailed instructions with pictures.
2. You can use an external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives. I think that would be the easiest and fastest way to access your data. You can find an external USB enclosure in any computer shop and it would cost you about $20-$30 or buy it here for $10. After you remove the laptop hard drive, place it inside the enclosure and connect to the desktop or another laptop computer via the USB cable. It is not necessary to install any drivers for the enclosure if the desktop PC runs Winodws 2000 or Windows XP. If the desktop PC runs Windows 98, then most likely you’ll have to install a driver for the enclosure before you can access the hard drive. The USB cable and the driver usually supplies with the external enclosure. Now you can access the laptop hard drive as a regular drive on your desktop/laptop computer.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I did exactly what you have told others above to do but when i restarted my computer, found my desktop hard drive which is attached to my lap top through the enclosure… it said do you want to format drive e: it is not formatted. If i do this, all my data will erase right? So how do i get my files then?
November 16th, 2008 at 6:10 am
My laptop is a Toshiba Portege M200 that does not have a DVD drive. It crashed recently and the message tells me to use the recovery disc. I don’t have the Optical drive that toshiba wants me to use to run this recovery disc..theirs is quite costly. Do you know of any way to run the recovery disc using a thumb drive or by going thru my desk top? My company recently sold about 75 of these laptops to our employees and several of us are having the same issue. Our IT department has washed their hands of them and is offering no help. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Debbie
November 15th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Hi, I have “2″ Dell Inspron B130′s. The one is perfectly fine. The other has some issues. First the screen quite working. I just hooked the laptop upto a regular monitor. This worked fine for about the last 9 months. Now even that is not working. I tried pluging it into another monitor with still no luck. I can hear windows boot up fine when I start the computer. Just no longer have any way of viewing anything.
What I need is to atleast get the files from the computer. What would happen if I took the hard drive from the bad computer and put it into the good computer just to copy some files and then switched back?
Would it be better to just get an External Enclosure and go that route. Saving the bad laptop is not a priority because fixing the screen issues are a little pricy. for what the laptop itself is worth. I just need the files off of it before I retire it.
Thanks for any help in advance.
Kevin
October 26th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Can I use an old hard drive from my fried laptop as the primary operating system for my daughter’s computer running windows me? The laptop drive contains Windows XP Pro. The problem I forsee is the speed through the usb as bogging down the operations. Right?
Thank you, Bruce
September 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Joe,
Yes, it’s possible. You’ll have to use an external enclosure for desktop hard drives and then connect it to the laptop via USB cable.
Yes, it’s possible. Before you transfer data from the external drive to the laptop, check the external drive with your antivirus/spyware utility. Delet viruses and then transfer data.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:55 am
..Is it possible to attach an (tower) hard drive, to a laptop? …using a cord or such?……once transfered, and connected…can the viruses from that hard drive infect, my laptop?
September 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Hi Laptop Freak.
Is there an enclosure made to handle A Laptop IBM hard drive 80 Gig and connect to a USB 1.1
My laptop does not support 2.0
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Reynald
August 19th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I have an HP Pavillion 9000 series and the motherboard got fried. HP said to send it back but to get my stuff off of my hard drive first because they will probably have to wipe it. I bought a hard drive enclosure and when I hook it up to my PC it recognizes my hard drive but when I open the folder it’s just one big text file. I asked at Best Buy and they basically told me they would have to send it off to their headquarters where they have the software to get my files off. I’m assuming this is a software that HP puts out to make more money off of you. Is there anything else I can try?
Thanks!
August 11th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Hello there,
My laptop crashed and will not start again due to a motherboard problem.
The laptop’s HDD was still working, so I got a USB enclosure to connect the HDD to a desktop.
Now my HDD had two partitions, one for the OS (Windows XP) and the other for data (that is my job files, and most important my postgrad thesis)
When I connected my new USB-HDD to a desktop I was able to read and copy from the first partition (originally disk c). However I can’t see the other partition (originally disk d) in the windows explorer.
So basically I do not have access to my data since the “d” partition does not show up.
Any ideas how can I get those files back? The HDD is working, but I can’t read partition d. Both partitions are NTFS
Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Victor
August 10th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Can someone help me! I have an HP Presior desktop and just recently somthing happend with my Monitor the light on the side still blinks but the monitor will not turn on ! Well anyway my System tower turns on and off seems to have no problem, I was just wondering how could i get my pictures and everything off of my system tower and onto my Laptop without having to buy another monitor. Is there away to do that do I just Plug my laptop in my system tower with a usb cord or what do i do??? I dont know much about this stuff so anything would help me!
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I’m trying to access an old laptop drive, using an external enclocure. It doesn’t show up in My Computer Automatically. When I go to disk management I can see the drive and it gives me the option to initialize and it lets me, but I still can’t access the drive. Can you please help? Thanks!
July 12th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Hello. I was working on my desktop one night and the power flickered resulting in my cpu to reboot and then I could no longer start up to windows. It seems as though something corrupted my boot records.
I also have a laptop and bought an HDD enclosure to try and transfer my files from my desktop HD to my laptop. Unfortunately, now when I click on the enclosure HD drive, it says the drive is not formatted and asks if I would like to format it now. Is there anyway to bypass this or am I hooped? Do I have to get someone to try and recover the data from desktop’s hard drive for a ridiculous amount of money?
Any help is appreciated.
-EA
July 9th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Thanks. I found the Outlook.pst file and made a backup copy. I guess I’ll have to wait to import it until she gets home from work. When I try to open the new Outlook it wants me to configure it with an email address and password which I will have to get from her. I guess there’s nothing I can do on that until then? If I ignored the configuration wizard (if that’s possible) and attempted to import, would it import the email address and password settings from the .pst file? That would be awesome since she has the old one set up for several email addresses (home, apartment and university). She also has it set up to synchronize with her Palm TX.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Lisa,
Back up her .pst (I believe outlook.pst) file and import it into new Outlook. You can search for files with extension .pst using Windows search utility.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Laptop Freak,
You’re my new hero; All I had to do was turn on hidden files! I bow to your infinite knowledge and have to wonder why I didn’t think of that myself! You’d think when I was searching yesterday I would have thought to check the box for search hidden folders! In my defense, it was after 2 o’clock in the morning when I finally gave up the hunt and maybe my thinking was a little fuzzy!
Anyway, that’s taken care of so on to my next battle. Btw, do you happen to know offhand an easy way to import her files and settings from Outlook on her old drive to Outlook on her new drive? (Not Outlook Express)
July 9th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Lisa,
Just another thought.
Maybe here files are compressed or encrypted and because of that you can see them only on her laptop? If that’s the case uncompress them or remove the encryption, but you’ll have to do it from her laptop.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Lisa,
1. Are you logged in as a user with administrative rights?
2. Maybe all her personal folders and files are hidden? Set your computer to show hidden folders and files. Tools-Folder options-View. In advanced settings check show hidden files and folders button.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Jason,
Apparently, they do make it. Check out this universal enclosure for SATA, IDE, 1.8″, 2.5″, 3.5″ hard drives.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Laptop Freak,
Thanks for the quick response. I had the same thoughts yesterday so I did a search on the word “pharmacy” (a common word on her old drive) with zero results. I also rebooted on the old drive and doublechecked the path.
When the old drive is in the enclosure the only folders that show up under her user name are Desktop, Favorites, LexiConnect (her palm software) and My Documents” Under My Documents the only folders are My Music and My Scans. The music folder is empty and the scans folder has several of her scans in it.
There should be roughly a dozen folders under “My Documents”. I’m stumped. Any more suggestions?
Thanks!!
July 9th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Thanks for your speedy reply and for the great information on this site. It’s a lifesaver! Plan A was to boot up using a Linux recovery disk and transfer files that way; but barely into the process, my CD drive died. Your solution would have been much easier to begin with! (Can you tell I’m a novice?)
Anyway… One more question: Do they make an external enclosure that will accept both 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives? I actually have two hard drives I’m trying to retrieve from. One is a laptop, the other is a PC. The laptop drive is a one-time deal. Once I get the files off, I’m done. The PC, on the other hand, is something I’ll hold onto, so an enclosure makes sense in that case.
Thanks again for your help.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Jason,
You can connect the external enclosure to any computer – laptop or desktop without opening up the computer. It’s always “ready to go”.
The PC connector can be connected only to a desktop computer and you’ll have to open up the case to get inside.
PC connector is faster then USB enclosure. That’s the only advantage.
If you are a home user, I would go with the external USB enclosure.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:15 am
I am trying to recover files from a laptop that will not boot. From the posts above, it seems like the external enclosure is the more popular option. What are the advantages of the enclosure vs. connection to a PC motherboard using an adapter? Does one option offer faster file transfer than the other?
July 8th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Lisa,
Maybe you are looking for these personal files in a wrong location? Are you searching for these files in the right user profile?
If she keeps all personal files in “My Documents” you should be able to access them through her user profile.
Also, you can use Window search and search the old hard drive for images or documents. After you find her pictures or documents take a look at the path where they are located.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Thank you for your willingness to help. I am upgrading my daughter’s laptop to a larger hard drive. I have the new drive up and running and have connected the old drive through an external enclosure. I can see the files and folders on the old drive, but her personal files (photos, classwork, etc.) are not showing up. It is not a matter of being denied access; they just don’t appear at all. Unlike most people who are in this situation because of a hard drive failure, I am lucky enough to be able to reinsert the original hard drive for troubleshooting and am able to verify that the files are actually there and are not corrupt. I have also tried connecting the old drive in the external enclosure to my own laptop and the results are the same. I have reinserted the old drive into her laptop and backed up the important files to a Maxtor external hard drive. It would be easy to now copy them from there to her new drive, but what she would prefer is to be able to copy some of the files now and then connect the enclosure as future needs arise. That means I need to figure out why the folders/files aren’t showing up.
To this end, I (yet again) reinserted the old drive into her latop and turned off password protection. Seemed like a good first step but no change. So…what do you suspect is the problem? I’ve read with interest your “taking ownership” comments and am willing to try this if you think it might be the solution, but before I do I was hoping to get something straightened out in my mind. One benefit of having her old hard drive around will be that in the event of a problem with the new drive she can get up and running quickly (necessary in Pharmacy School!) by reinserting the old drive. What effect would “taking ownership” of those files have in the event she goes back to the old drive? Would she have to take ownership back again?? Does my question even make sense? The whole point of this is to make things as easy and stress free as possible for her, so I appreciate any suggestions you can give me toward getting this set up like she wants it.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Thank you in advance for providing your expertise. I had a Toshiba Satellite A15-s129 and after 6yrs it died and said that the system32.exe file is missing. I’m assuming that it’s my OS, I have removed the hard drive and from your previous advice going to buy an enclosure, I just want to make sure that my new laptop (HP)will not be harmed when I download the old files. Also will this work with Windows Vista?
May 29th, 2008 at 8:46 am
hi,
i have toshiba 305cdt laptop, and when my windows starting up i got this error message:
“cmdninst has caused an error in KRNL386.EXE” and it hang.
any reply would be greatly appreciated,
May 14th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I pulled my hard drive and switched it out with my wife’s computer and had to redo my Windows authorization again but was able to get to and backup my files. I did a virus scan, check disk and defrag with no errors – I placed to drive back into the original laptop and the same thing happens where it goes to the password screen but everything is unresponsive (system won’t recognize function keys at startup to get into safe mode).
How can I be sure this still might not be a hard drive error issue vs hardware. If this is hardware is there any way short of spending a lot of money to have it diagnosed. I’m worried the repair might cost more than a new laptop.
Any ideas?
Thank you
May 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
mkb,
If the old drive appears in the disk management but not in My Computer, it’s possible that the file structure on the hard drive is corrupted. In this case you’ll have to use data recovery software. It’s still possible to get some personal files with the data recovery software even though the hard drive will not appear in My Computer.
BTW, I posted your question here.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
First of all, try to login in Safe mode and then use user name: Administrator without any password. You may be able to log in, change the password and then login in normal mode.
You’ll have to remove the hard drive, install it into an external USB enclosure ($15-20) and then connect it to another computer.
Also, you can find software tools to reset administrator’s password on XP computer. For example Locksmith in ERD Commander boot CD.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Hi,
My DELL inspiron 9300 laptop hard-disk crashed along with optical drive. I have got the new parts in place now. I am connecting my old hard disk in an USB enclosure to the laptop. I cannot see the drive in mycomputer though it shows up in disk management as healthy. It is FAT 32.
Please help me to recover the data. Do I need any recovery software? thanks,
mkb