Data recovery

[TJCbangor]

I had an old PC, Packard Bell running Windows 98 I think. I plugged it in one day a few years ago and it went pop, which I assume was the power supply blowing. I want to try and recover the data from hard drive myself. Someone told me I might be able to remove the hard drive, put it in a case and connect it to my new PC via USB and hopefuly be able to read from the disc. Does this sound possible and can I buy a piece of kit to do this?

 

J

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help J.

Perfectly possible providing the original hard drive is IDE, which is quite likely. It is to old for it to be SATA, though if old enough to be of an earlier standard than IDE you might be struggling to find something.

You can obtain plain adapters or a complete caddy to connect an IDE drive to a USB port.

Providing the drive itself wasn't damaged by the bang and presumed flash, it should show up in the same way any other drive such as a memory stick or thumb drive when plugged in.

 

An adapter here at Maplin, though a search of Google for IDE to USB adapter might find one cheaper.

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/usb-2.0-to-ide-adaptor-35057

 

A complete caddy so it can be used as an external hard drive for future use, here on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Drive-Caddy-External-Enclosure/dp/B002K00G0W

 

Hope that helps.

 

Nev.

[NehwalSaina]

Yes you can using ide, sata to usb connector, directly access to your hard drive to any system.

[KenB]

Hi and welcome from me too

 

If you just want data off the drive then an IDE to USB adapter can be found quite cheaply.

 

You could, however, add the drive to an enclosure ( caddy ) as Nev has explained.

This way you gain an external hard drive.

It will not be very big ( capacity wise ) but would do for photos etc.

 

There is no guarantee that you will be able to access the drive but from your description the odds are very good.

[TJCbangor]

Thanks for your reply. If I just buy the adaptor I assume I remove the cover of the PC and plug it into the hard drive where it sits.

 

John

[KenB]

Hi John

 

If you buy an adapter you are going to need to use another computer with it - not the damaged one.

 

You will need to take the hard drive out to do this.

 

Adapter - click here

[TJCbangor]

Thanks for your advice again. Are you saying if I use an adaptor I need to take the drive out and put it into my other PC?

[KenB]

and put it into my other PC?

No.

The point of using an adapter is that it is temporary - just to access the drive say to get data off it.

It plugs into the USB port and just hangs there.

Functional - but not permanent.

 

If you wanted something a little more permanent - convert the hard drive into an external drive - then I suggest an external enclosure ( caddy )

These are more expensive.

 

There is no guarantee that by attaching your drive to another PC's USB port the drive will be able to be read.

It depends on what damage was done.

There is a very good chance that it will be accessible :)