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recovering data from hard drive


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#1
Estee

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Hi all,

My daughter's laptop (HP G60-230US) stopped working. It is still under warranty, but before we send it in for repair, we want to get her data off the hard drive.

I removed the hard drive and connected it to my husband's laptop with a USB 2.0 to SATA IDE cable (I'm not really sure what that is, but that's what it says on the box). The computer puts up a little bubble saying that a USB Mass Storage device is plugged in and ready to use, but then nothing shows up in My Computer.

Any suggestions? We're not super computer-savvy but have gotten excellent help on Geeks to Go in the past. Thanks in advance!
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#2
diabillic

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Bring up Disk Management (Start -> Run -> diskmgmt.msc) and post a screenshot of it.
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#3
Estee

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Thank you!

Attached Files


Edited by Estee, 21 May 2010 - 11:12 AM.

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#4
FNP

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Try restarting the computer while leaving the drive plugged in. A fresh boot into Windows might get the system to recognize the drive.
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#5
rshaffer61

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The screenshot shows only one hard drive connected to the system.
The drive is not being seen that I can see.
If you reinstall into your daughters laptop and it does not boot what error message do you get?
Does it say no boot device present?
If so then either the connections are not right or the drive has failed completely.
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#6
Estee

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Thanks so much for replying.

Her laptop didn't show a normal screen when it turned on-- the display looked like thin mulitcolored lines. There were no sounds to indicate that it was booting even if we couldn't see it. She didn't drop it or anything-- it just happened on afternoon when she turned it on-- but we thought maybe her hard drive is OK.

When I plug it into our laptop, it does indicate in the lower left corner of the screen that a USB Mass Storage Device has been plugged in, but then it doesn't show up on My Computer.

It occurs to me- she used Windows 7 and I use Windows XP. Could that be a problem?
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#7
rshaffer61

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Not if you are booting to her hd and the other is only a external drive.
If you are trying to boot to it then yes it will be a problem.
The best way is to hook the drive up as a external. Boot her system up using your husbands system as the host system and then access the data on your daughters hd and back it up. You will need to purchase a external hd enclosure for a 2.5" drive as that is what a laptop drive is.
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#8
Estee

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Right. What I tried to do (not knowing tons about computers) was to take out (unscrew) her hard drive, attach it to a cable-- R-Driver III USB 2.0 to SATA IDE Cable-- and connect that to my husband's laptop.

Was that wrong?
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#9
rshaffer61

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Still using your husbands hard drive to boot his system or did you disconnect his hd?
If it was connected right then it sounds like it tried to boot to your daughters drive instead of the one in the laptop.
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#10
Estee

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Still using your husbands hard drive to boot his system or did you disconnect his hd?

I didn't change anything about his computer. I left his hard drive in place.

I thought I could just read her drive while his was running. :)

If it was connected right then it sounds like it tried to boot to your daughters drive instead of the one in the laptop.

I'm not sure what that means. *wince* sorry
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#11
rshaffer61

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Some of the newer systems are capable of booting to a external drive. It sounds like this is what happened with you.
When you say your daughters system stopped working will it not power on at all?
With or without it being plugged into the wall?
The other option is as I said a external enclosure and you should be able to use a desktop system to access the drive then.
If your daughters system does power up how far into booting up windows does it go?
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#12
deggitt

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Hi, your daughters hard drive is a sata drive, this uses the red cable + the usb cable. Are you also using the power supply that came with it. It also has a driver disk supplied. Did you boot your husbans comp. first & than plug in the drive & then power it up.
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#13
Estee

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Her laptop only shows a lot of thin vertical lines. There's no sound to indicate that Windows is booting. It is the same whether or not it is plugged in.

It is still under warranty and we can send it in to HP but we want to get her info off her hard drive first.

The cable I have-- R-Driver III USB 2.0 to SATA IDE Cable-- will not work like an enclosure?
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#14
deggitt

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Hi, my post was about how you are connecting your daughters hard drive to your husbands computer.
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#15
Estee

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Hi, your daughters hard drive is a sata drive, this uses the red cable + the usb cable. Are you also using the power supply that came with it. It also has a driver disk supplied. Did you boot your husbans comp. first & than plug in the drive & then power it up.

I didn't see a disk. Am I supposed to download a driver?

Here's what I did:
-attached the red cable to the usb cable
-attached the hard drive to the red cable and the power cable
-plugged the power cable to the the outlet
-and then attached the usb cable the laptop.
I also tried rebooting with it attached.
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