[john god]

Hello and good day,

This is my terrible problem:

I turned off my pc one night,next day tried to start it but was dead.
Didn't have any power and a smell like something was burning.

I have info on the Hard Drive that I would like to get off.

I have another pc, both are Dell.
Can I take my Hard Drive out of the bad pc
and connect that hard drive to my other pc using an exterior hook up?
If I can, how would I go about doing it?

Thank-You,
John God

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A little more info please.

Why not just hook it up internally as a second drive? It's not very complicated.

Compliments of rshaffer61

Word of caution if the drive itself is what you were smelling I highly suggest you DO NOT install it internally.

If you want to hook up externally you'll probably have to spend money
on something like this. But as you can see, it's a pretty inexpensive solution.

Post more info such as what model Dell and the type of hard drive (ie. ATA, SATA)
and I would be glad to steer you in the right direction.

Have a nice day

SGC

Edited by SupeR GeekiN CognitO, 29 July 2012 - 11:52 PM.

[SupeR GeekiN CognitO]

A little more info please.

Why not just hook it up internally as a second drive? It's not very complicated.

Compliments of rshaffer61

Word of caution if the drive itself is what you were smelling I highly suggest you DO NOT install it internally.

If you want to hook up externally you'll probably have to spend money
on something like this. But as you can see, it's a pretty inexpensive solution.

Post more info such as what model Dell and the type of hard drive (ie. ATA, SATA)
and I would be glad to steer you in the right direction.

Have a nice day

SGC

Edited by SupeR GeekiN CognitO, 29 July 2012 - 11:52 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Word of caution if the drive itself is what you were smelling I highly suggest you DO NOT install it internally. Putting it in a external would give you some safety since if the drive is bad and a short does happen it may take the external enclosure, the connecting cable or maybe a USB port. A small price compared to possibly shorting your whole system out.

[SupeR GeekiN CognitO]

Word of caution if the drive itself is what you were smelling I highly suggest you DO NOT install it internally.

Yes, I apologize for not catching that. Thank you for noticing.

SGC

[rshaffer61]

You are welcome.

[SleepyDude]

Hello and good day,

This is my terrible problem:

I turned off my pc one night,next day tried to start it but was dead.
Didn't have any power and a smell like something was burning.
...

This sounds more like a burned Power Supply.
If the computer is out of warranty and you are comfortable opening the computer case and touching inside you can disconnect all the power cables and test the power supply, probably it have a switch for test or you can do a test like the one showing on this video

Edited by rpaz, 30 July 2012 - 07:19 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Turning the system on will verify if PSU is on. Just look at the fan on the inside. If it turns then the issue is not the PSU. If it doesn't it can be PSU, MB, Switch, CPU or power cord. Since something smelled like burning I would not chance doing it but remove the PSU and hook a simple fan to it as the video shows. Then proceed with the test.

[john god]

The pc is a Dell Optiplex GX270.
Hard Drive is Western Digital.
Its a IDE Drive

I checked the power cord and that works with another pc.
I used a different power cord on the pc, and the fan works.

I think my best and safest bet would be installing the Hard Drive externally.

My main thing is to try and get the information off the Hard Drive.....

[rshaffer61]

Can I ask when you turn the system on does the monitor show a picture?
Do you hear the hard drive spin up?

[john god]

No the monitor is blank.
Don't hear anything but the fan.

[rshaffer61]

OK possibly it may be the motherboard then.
I would still suggest getting a external USB enclosure and seeing if you can access the data that way on a known good working system.

[john god]

How do I go about getting a external enclosure?
How would I use it?

All I would like to do is get the info off the Hard Drive.

[rshaffer61]

You would need to purchase one like this HERE
You would need to know if your hard drive is IDE or SATA connections.
It would then be placed inside of the enclosure and then the enclosure connects to a system via a USB cable. It shows up in the My Computer or Windows Explorer as a external device. You would then simply find your data you want to save and then drag and drop it into a folder on the system you are connected to or to a flash drive depending on how much data you need to save. Programs cannot be saved so don't worry about them.

[john god]

I believe its IDE.
Because I had to put a DVD Drive in it that was IDE.
Would I need a power cord or just the USB cable?

[rshaffer61]

Nope externals normally are powered through the USB but if it did need power it would be included with the unit.