My laptop died

[FreshFish]

Ok, so a week or two ago my laptop screen (I have an Apple iBook, btw) went CRAZY and got all glitchy...it appears that something is either wrong with the display or more likely, with the graphics chip. I have TONS of pictures I have taken while on vacation and I really want them from my laptop once I get home (in 2 days).

Apple will probably charge me an arm + a leg to repair this thing, and I can't spare those. The HDD has OSX installed on it. What is the easiest way to get my data from this hard drive? Can I just take it out and hook it up to my desktop? Or is that not allowed since it already has an OS on it? I have never had to do this before...thanks for any help!

 

[Robor]

I don't know how Apple's work but usually if you toss a drive into a different system it's hit or miss. Either it will boot and find all the new hardware or it will blue screen. I don't know if Apple's do that though.

Do you know anyone with the same laptop? If so slap it in there and dump off the data you want to save to a network store or CD/DVD.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yes you can put it into an external enclosure and it should work fine there. Just buy a 2.5" enclosure that has the port you need (USB2 or firewire) and that says it supports Macs.

Newegg.com has USB enclosures from Bytecc for under $20.

 

[FreshFish]

Thanks a lot-- I won't have any problems with the OS already installed on it?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: FreshFish
Thanks a lot-- I won't have any problems with the OS already installed on it?

Not if you put it into an external enclosure and boot normally from the internal drive.

Like Robor said if you hooked it up inside the desktop and tried to boot from it you'd likely have issues, but connected externally it will just be a data drive.

 

[FreshFish]

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=17-145-155&DEPA=0

This is the one enclosure I found on newegg that is for 2.5" drives and says it supports Mac. Does it need to support Mac? My desktop is a pc running Win XP. Either way, I might just pick up that enclosure because it works for either. Any thoughts on that? THanks again for the help!

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: FreshFish
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=17-145-155&DEPA=0

This is the one enclosure I found on newegg that is for 2.5" drives and says it supports Mac. Does it need to support Mac? My desktop is a pc running Win XP. Either way, I might just pick up that enclosure because it works for either. Any thoughts on that? THanks again for the help!

If your desktop is a PC you probably will not be able to read a mac-formatted hard drive unless you have third-party software for your PC that supports it.

You may need to take the enclosure to someone / somewhere there is a mac with a cd burner.

 

[ribbon13]

What file system is the drive in? You really don't need anm external enclosure if its in something windows can read. a $5 IDC->IDE adapter would work fine. Otherwise you'll need a Mac PC anyway

 

[FreshFish]

not sure what file system the drive is in...argh...I will boot it up and see if it will last a few minutes before crashing again. What file system should it be in for Windows to be able to read it? Also, what is IDC? Sorry to be a noob, but thanks