[arjirik]

Hello, I would like to retrieve data from a hard drive before reinstalling Windows on it. The drive is a Seagate and I'd like to slave it to a Western Digital.

Please excuse me as my knowledge is limited. Looking at the drives, the WD has a ribbon and the Seagate has a cable. Both drives also have pins (where I assume something can be connected) but they are not the same. Is there a cable or some type of connector I can purchase or am I wasting my time? If the answer is "wasting your time" what alternatives do I have for extracting data? The Seagate is infected and I cannot log into Windows (normal, safe mode, last known good configuration, etc etc.)

Thank you!

[Advertisements]

It sounds like the
WD is a IDE drive
and the
Seagate is a SATA drive
Your system would have to have both type of connections on the MOBO to do as you are wanting.
The other option is to purchase a external enclosure for the Seagate and using a USB or ESATA connection on the outside of the system you should be able to access the drive that way.
Can I ask what infection you have on the drive?
Have you tried a linux live boot disk to get your data from the Seagate?

[rshaffer61]

It sounds like the
WD is a IDE drive
and the
Seagate is a SATA drive
Your system would have to have both type of connections on the MOBO to do as you are wanting.
The other option is to purchase a external enclosure for the Seagate and using a USB or ESATA connection on the outside of the system you should be able to access the drive that way.
Can I ask what infection you have on the drive?
Have you tried a linux live boot disk to get your data from the Seagate?

[arjirik]

I have the "can't escape the blue screen of death" problem. When I try to log in I'm immediately logged off. You suggested retrieving my data and then reinstalling Windows. If I can't slave the drives, can I use Puppy Linux which you have suggested to others?
Thanks.

[rshaffer61]

Yes puppy linux should work for you as it does not depend on windows to work.

Get Puppy Linux...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get Burncdcc from my signature...it is a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its memtest86.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all your data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...

==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Thanks to happyrock