So, my laptop drowned to death today, and I had to buy a new one.
Now, I assume that the hard drive is in working order. When I bought my new laptop, I asked if I should be easily able to retrieve myself the data from the former computer’s hard drive. I was told it should be easy to do.
Now, I’ve the former hard drive and the new computer on my desk. Great. What are the next steps (links or direct explanations welcome)? For the record I’m mostly computer-illiterate.
Thanks in advance.
A couple options. If you have a non-laptop PC, you can install the old hard drive as a secondary drive in it, just by attaching the data and power cables to it. You don’t even have to screw it into place.
If not, what you want is either a SATA to USB adapter cable, or a USB hard drive dock. Hitting your local Best Buy or Fry’s should get you these for around 30 bucks or so.
The latter option, while not free, is certainly the easiest and most user-friendly. It essentially turns an internal hard drive into a giant USB thumb drive.
Oh, I just noticed that it died via drowning. The hard drive might very well be ruined if that’s the case, due to a power surge when it shorted out. It’s still worth trying to rescue, as it can’t harm your new laptop by being plugged in via USB adapter. Yo can always just return it if it doesn’t work out.
(Also, I strongly advise you to start backing up your new laptop immediately. If you need advice on easy ways to do so, we can help with that too.)
You will probably need to get a 2.5-inch external drive enclosure, since there may not be room for another hard-drive in the new laptop and even if there is poking around inside it might not be covered by the warranty in case something goes wrong. Then, extract the hard drive from the old laptop, mount it in the enclosure, connect to computer via USB and hope all your files are as you left them.
you don’t need a drive enclosure for a one time or occasional recovery.
there are adapters that connect a USB cable to SATA/IDE in 1.8/2.5/3.5/5.25 inch drives. comes with a small power supply. can be found for about $30 (USA). lay the drive on a sheet of paper for this operation and you will be OK.
success is a all depends.
Before you take any of these suggestions, if it’s an old laptop, figure out whether the drive is SATA or IDE first, so you know what kind of adapter / enclosure you need. Laptops started going to SATA around 2005/2006. When you take the drive out of the old laptop, if it doesn’t say on it, IDE drives have a couple rows of little pins on the back, SATA drives have a flat plastic connector with an L shape on one end. Here’s a picture:
Just a note about the OP and electronics in water. For the most part, water will not hurt an electronic device as long as it was OFF when the water damage occurred. If you have a device that gets water in it turn it off IMMEDIATELY. You then need to let it dry for several days if not weeks before attempting to turn it back on. I have seen several YouTube videos that show you how to help the drying process along. With any luck once your device is completely dry it will work. However, if you attempt to power it on while moisture is present you are going to kill it deader than hell.
I am not an expert on these things, but worked for a computer arcade back in the '80s. While transporting some games in a truck it rained on them. The lead tech for the company told me that as long as they were given ample time to dry, the electronics would not be harmed. This has served me well and I have had a few devices over the years work after being dropped in the pool etc …
to be clear the above is one device that does all SATA/IDE in 1.8/2.5/3.5/5.25 inch drives.