[gordon0412]

Hey all. Doing a bit of spring cleaning, and was ready to take a PC I built in 1998 to the local dump when it occured to me to try and find out if there is anyway I can retrieve some of the data on the hard drive from it. It won't boot anymore, but I don't think it's the drive. I believe it's a Seagate circia mid to late 90's if I recall correctly. Is there a way I, who am fairly computer savvy, or perhaps anyone else can retrieve some of the stuff off that drive onto a current generation LT or flash drive?  Nothing important obviously, but some documents and pics that would probably be nostalgic to get at.

[Advertisements]

   gordon0412,

 

An external USB HDD enclosure or adapter kit will do the trick but only as long as the HDD is working, couple of examples here and here

 

TIP

To ensure that you receive notification of any reply to your topic please click on the Follow this topic tab at the upper right corner of the page. 

[phillpower2]

   gordon0412,

 

An external USB HDD enclosure or adapter kit will do the trick but only as long as the HDD is working, couple of examples here and here

 

TIP

To ensure that you receive notification of any reply to your topic please click on the Follow this topic tab at the upper right corner of the page. 

[Kemasa]

It is possible, but it could be difficult if the drive is of a very old type (ie. not IDE or SATA). If it is IDE, then it would be very easy to do, although it can take time to go through the data (OS vs. personal stuff).

 

The first step is to open the computer and determine what type of hard drive it has.

[gordon0412]

Thanks gentlemen. I'll look into both. Yea, definteily have to take it apart. This quest is going to become something of a project. I'll have to research IDE or SATA, but I'm thinking you might mean the ability to decipher the file directory information, especially the file types. If it's all binary/hex then I'll be in a bit (pun intended) over my head and just give it up.  

[Kemasa]

If the drive is a IDE or SATA, you would just need to mount it in an external case or adapter and then attach and mount the filesystem. You would then be able to see all of the files. If you kept all of your files in one location, then it would be easy to find them and copy them, just like with your current disk.  The problem can be that the files are spread out in multiple directories, so you need to search for them.

 

Go to the top directory on your current disk and see what is there. It will basically be the same.