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Can I recover data myself on a laptop that has crashed? I dont want to pay the Best Buy fee. ?

21 Mar

I can use the restore cd that came with the laptop to get Vista working again but I would like to be able to do the data recovery myself to save a little money, but windows is not working.

 
5 Comments

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  1. Samuel Adams

    March 22, 2010 at 12:14 am

    Take the hard drive out of the laptop, and using a screwdriver, remove the special IDE connector that laptop manufacturers put on their laptops. If you’re lucky, you might be able to swap it with a new laptop, but I doubt it. Windows XP has a funny way of not booting on other computers. In this case you might have to buy a laptop to desktop IDE cable and use a desktop computer to recover the data.

     

  2. Jerry J

    March 22, 2010 at 12:40 am

    You can do it through DOS, just save the files you want to a memory stick or external HDD

     

  3. FlareHeart

    March 22, 2010 at 1:20 am

    If you do a repair install (not a fresh install), it should come up with Windows without damaging your data. You can then pull it off onto an external drive of some kind and then do a fresh install if you like.

    Also, if you can remove the hard drive from the laptop, there are adapters to buy than can allow you to plug the hard drive into a different computer and you can remove your data that way. Once your data is off, put the hard drive back into the laptop and restore away.

     

  4. frank l

    March 22, 2010 at 1:37 am

    Yes you can, all you have to do if the following:
    MAKE SURE THE LAPTOP IS TURNED OFF!!!
    1- Look in the bottom of the laptop for a set of screws.(Most laptops have a little some icon that looks like a small drive, thats where the hard drive is located).
    2- Take the top off and carefully remove the hard drive from its slot.
    3- Once you remove the hard drive the best thing if you have one is called a IDE/SATE adapter to USB. If not you can find one online or where they sell computer products, not to sure about Best Buy. Here is a link to one http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-USB-TO-IDE-SATA-ATA-ADAPTERFOR-2-5-3-5-HDD-CDROM_W0QQitemZ330269663240QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item330269663240&_trkparms=72%3A1163%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
    4- Once you connect it to another PC it will be read just like if it was a flash drive and you can acces every file you would like. ex. pictures, music, files, programs….

    Its really not hard at all and its cheaper than taking it to best buy which they will charge you about $80 just to tell you that the laptop has crashed or so.

     

  5. Mercuri

    March 22, 2010 at 2:04 am

    Assuming the HD is good and the data is intact (as opposed to the HD is non-functional), you can remove the HD from the computer and put it in a External Hard Drive enclosure. You’ll have to check that kind of HD your laptop has though as there are two main times (IDE/PATA and SATA). A SATA drive will work in any other desktop as a slave. A IDE/PATA drive will not work in a desktop.

    Also note that most laptops only have ONE hard drive bay so you cannot just put the hard drive in another laptop. However, if you do manage to have another laptop handy and it does have a second HD bay and that HD bay is the same type as your HD, then it would work.

    On a side note, HD enclosures are about $50 or so.
    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8774301&st=Hard+drive+enclosure&lp=3&type=product&cp=1&id=1204332553274
    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8330237&st=Hard+drive+enclosure&lp=6&type=product&cp=1&id=1175389041039