Extracting files from laptop harddrive

robulus

Hi folks,
I've just got a quick question - is there a difference between a harddrive caddy and an enclosure?

I've got an effectively dead Dell inspiron 1000 - and I'm trying to recover some files from the laptop harddrive - but I don't know what I need to go about doing this.

Any tips?
thanks!
Robin.

hoppy

lol tricky one external enclosures are also known as caddies but the small tray the hd is fitted to in the laptop is also called a caddy, what you need is a 2.5 ide harddrive enclosure/caddy, also if you had your laptop password protected (ie you needed a password to log onto windows) its not going to be as straight forward as just putting your hd in a caddy and transfering files.

jasonb

I don't know if it helps or not but the last time I had a laptop that just wouldn't boot no matter what I tried and I needed to get files off the hard disk, I created a bootable CD with Knoppix on it, booted from that CD and was able to read the Hard Disk and copy files to a Memory Stick...

J.

robulus

Hi Guys,
cheers for the tips!

Are all laptop harddrives the same size? (I just have an image of getting one, and then finding it won't fit.) Do you know of a place in Dub city centre where they sell these?

The laptop is a bit of trouble - a friend of mine asked me to fix it, she hadn't used it in a year because sometimes when the power button was pressed the screen didn't display anything.
Anyway, I powered it on last night, and it worked fine - booted into the login screen and everything.

The only problem was that she had forgotten her account password - so I just booted the laptop into safemode and logged in as administrator (default was a blank administrator password - mwahaha) and just changed her password. Restarted and all seemed good. (high fives all round).

Left it alone and thought this morning, ok I'd better extract the files in case something else breaks down. Plugged everything in - pressed the power button and nothing - it was totally dead (crap!)

So I can't use a boot disk - it won't even power up to boot from anything. So I thought ok, get the HD out and see what can be saved.

It sounds like my weekend will be spent sweating over dell support boards....8-/
Robin.

hoppy

laptop hds are either 2.5 ide or 2.5 sata the older it is the more likely it is to be ide!an inspiron 1000 will have and ide hd

gamer

You take out the hardrive put it inside caddy,sata or ide caddy is 15euro.Plug it in to usb port of a pc and copy data to a folder.DO not touch hd pcb or let the hd circuit board touch the metal caddy.MAYBE put some tape adhesive type on the hd pcb to stop it short circuiting against the metal case.
ASK FOR a 2.5inch drive enclosure, SATA OR ide,google sata picture and 2.5 inch ide picture be4you go 2 peats or pc world.
read the manual b4 you setup the caddy,some hds use 2 usb cables 4 power .eg hds over 200gig size.
DEll 2.5 hds are the same as sony,samsung ie theres nothing unique bout ,em everyone uses the same 2.5 hds .
Google copy data from laptop hardrive.ide interface is 30pins sata is 12pins approx .ide interface is much longer than sata.Older DELLS use 2.5 INCH ide drives, see here http://icrontic.com/articles/easy_data_recovery the ide or sata caddy in peats is 15euro.I Bought 1 last week. in that page ata means ide drive. try pressing the power button really hard twice,on the laptop.

docmol

before you rush out and buy anything try this. open the laptop and slowly put your weight onto the keyboard. spread out your hands so you are covering as much surface area as possible. the idea is to push the components on the motherboard down (and hopefully tighten anything that has loosened.) This has worked for me on more than 1 occasion and I have managed to get a last boot out of a dodgy laptop. You can also buy a cable that will allow you to plug a 2.5" (laptop) drive into a standard pc (ide or usb). as it is just a cable, with no electronics, it's way cheaper than a caddy. I have never seen an external ide enclosure for €15! If the drive was sata (it isn't) you wouldn't need to buy anything, it would work fine in any modern pc (with a normal sata lead)
Here is a link to the correct cable in maplins uk catalogue for £20
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=35057
maplin are an expensive crowd so you might do better elsewhere

mp22

Got one of these a while back sorts most hd`s
http://www.usbnow.co.uk/Adapters_&_Connectors-USB_to_SATA_Adapters/c42_49/p52/USB_2.0_IDE_&_SATA_Cable_(with_Power_Supply)/product_info.html

Morning

just get one of these http://www.xpcgear.com/driveadapter.html (2.5 to 3.5 inch hard drive adaptor) i'm sure somewhere around here sells them, and hook it up to another pc to get the files off

h3000

I got one of those a while back in Maplin. Came in very useful on many occasions.

Alanstrainor

As suggested, you could download a version of linux ( i use ubuntu ) and burn it to disk, and just throw it in your cd drvie, boot from said cd drive and you'll get access to your files. Quick easy, and costs the price of a cd-r. Thats assuming you have usb sticks to transfer the data across to, or a network place to put the files.

robulus

Hi Guys,
thanks again for those tips!

I tried the spreading the weight trick, but no luck - good idea though, I'll add that one to the internal checklist :-)

I ordered the cable mp22 suggested - I'm hoping using that'll be a last resort, but I guess it's best to be prepared.

I would have tried a linux boot disk (I use Ubuntu myself) - but the problem seems to be that after the power button is pressed, things start to power on - for an instant, then nothing. The light at the bottom of the laptop shows that's it's on - but I can't hear any fan, and the screen doesn't display anything. I need to hold down the power button for a hard shut down before I can try and restart it again.

So I've started reading up on dismantling laptops (eek - never tried it). Couldn't find any service manual for the inspiron 1000 (it's that old). Haven't managed to get as far as the motherboard yet though - trying to remove the strip above the keyboard always seems to strain as if it's about to snap. (to say nothing about the optical drive - I have no idea how to get that thing out. The idea is to just take the bits out, see if antyhing is clogged, like a fan or a heat sink and just put things back in again. I know I'm clutching at straws, but if I can't do anything with it I may as well try this route.

It's just the putting everything back in place that gets me worried. :-)
thanks again for all your advice! If anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears!
Rob.

docmol

When stripping anything for the first time I tend to take loads of digital photos. Especially handy if you can rig your camera above your bench pointing down. Running the photos backwards can give you a hint as to what you need to do next when reassembling. Also don't try to strip it all the way, just enough to give you access to all the little cables you might need to reseat, and to reinsert the cpu and any daughterboards if they have come loose. Make sure you have reseated the ram and hdd before you go for the complete stripdown though! (they can usually br got at very easily from underneath.)
PS Have you checked the PSU?

mp22

is this what your after
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1000/en/Y69601LRs.pdf
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins2200/en/SM/keyboard.htm
also http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1520/en/sm/index.htm
might be of some help they migh be similar

denat

Alanstrainor wrote: »

As suggested, you could download a version of linux ( i use ubuntu ) and burn it to disk, and just throw it in your cd drvie, boot from said cd drive and you'll get access to your files. Quick easy, and costs the price of a cd-r. Thats assuming you have usb sticks to transfer the data across to, or a network place to put the files.

Am I right in thinking that, if the hard-drive itself is faulty, the booting from linux cd trick would not work?

I've got an ancient gateway pc and when i try to boot I just get a series of mechanical clunks that I think must come from the hard-drive.

Alanstrainor

denat wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that, if the hard-drive itself is faulty, the booting from linux cd trick would not work?

I've got an ancient gateway pc and when i try to boot I just get a series of mechanical clunks that I think must come from the hard-drive.

Well if you're booting from the cd drive it should boot into the OS regardless of whether the HD is working or not, it sounds like your cd drive could be borked. If your HD is on it's last legs you may be able to extract data off it using this method. It's really trial and error.

gamer

GO TO youtube type dell 1000 repair yo, see videos how to dissasemble open a dell laptop.A USB DRIVE IDE 2.5inch caddy is 15euro in peats.

robulus

Hi guys,
sorry about the delay there - headed home for the weekend, didn't have access to the interweb!

I've narrowed the problem down via something I should have checked from the start. I plugged the laptop into another monitor and vollia, everything's fine, the laptop, its boot messages and windows load just fine, everytime.
The reason it seemed dead was that it was waiting for a key press that I couldn't see because the screen was dead.

So at least I've made a backup of all the useful files. Too bad I bought that cable before I checked with another monitor but oh well - live and learn I guess.

Any tips from anyone about fixing up laptop screens? I'm guessing it may be just a dodgy cable connecting the motherboard to the screen. Or something, since I've seen that laptop display work fine on more than one occasion.

Thanks everyone for the tips! That service manual looks especially interesting!
Rob.

majiktripp

Sounds like the backlight or inverter is gone in the screen, should find a replacement on ebay or at worst an entire screen if you wanted to go down the self repair route. Are you going to look into that or spring for a new laptop altogether?

robulus

I dismantled the laptop as much as i could, and noticed the screen cable is badly twisted and lodged tightly against a metal frame. Maybe it's just shorting out. So I think that's what caused the problem.

Don't know if I'll go as far as getting a new one yet - I just made a terrible cock up - putting the machine back together again, I realise that I can't remember which way the keyboard flex cable should go in....crap

So first things first, figure out how to put that back in 8-/