HP laptop motherboard died...how can I retrieve my files??

[AUMM]

Blah, my hp laptop mb is dead and I'd like to retrieve my files off the hard drive.... any idea how I would go about doing this? I'm hoping it wouldn't be too difficult?

 

[gaidensensei]

Disassemble it and remove the hard drive. If you have an SATA drive you can connect it directly to a desktop that supports sata.

If you have a PATA drive then you can buy a pata-> usb converter for no more than $5-19 shipped depending on quality/options.

 

[razel]

You can also put it in an external 2.5" (laptop size) USB enclosure which are pretty cheap on ebay. You just need to find out when you remove the drive if it's PATA or SATA to buy the correct one. If you got geeky friends, they'll have plenty laying around.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you have a PATA drive then you can buy a pata-> usb converter for no more than $5-19 shipped depending on quality/options.

I haven't seen an IDE-only USB converter in years. The standard USB converter cables now include both IDE disk (3.5" and 2.5") and SATA disk connectors.

 

[AUMM]

Disassemble it and remove the hard drive. If you have an SATA drive you can connect it directly to a desktop that supports sata.

If you have a PATA drive then you can buy a pata-> usb converter for no more than $5-19 shipped depending on quality/options.

gonna try this tonight.... so when i open it up how do i tell if it is sata or pata?


thanks for the help guys!

 

[corkyg]

It should say what it is on the drive label. But - the pins will tell you easily. SATA drives have two small connectorsxz. Pata is a long row of double pins. This illustrates:

 

[gaidensensei]

I haven't seen an IDE-only USB converter in years. The standard USB converter cables now include both IDE disk (3.5" and 2.5") and SATA disk connectors.

That's why I wrote the quality/options part in there .

 

[msap14]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-002-_-Product

I use this to connect laptop (and other) HDDs to my pc. Plug it in, PnP recognizes the HDD(s) an autoplay screen usually appears to view files/folders. Just copy that info to your desktop, burn it to a cd, do what you want but there all the data will be.