If for some reason your notebook fails to boot and you need to access data on the hard drive (I assume there is nothing wrong with the hard drive itself), you can use an external USB enclosure. This method is very simple and could be very useful when you need an emergency access to your data on the hard drive.
First of all you’ll have to buy an external USB enclosure for notebook hard drives. These enclosures are inexpensive and usually you can buy them in any local computer store. You also can find a wide variety of external enclosures on the Internet. Make sure to buy a correct one, enclosures for ATA and SATA hard drives are different (the connector inside the case will be different). Usually the enclosure includes the case and the USB cables.
Now remove the hard drive from the laptop. For this example I’m using an ATA hard drive.
Open up the enclosure case and connect the hard drive to the connector inside. After that insert the hard drive into the case.
After everything is assembled, you are ready to connect this device to any working computer (notebook or PC). The enclosure cable usually has two USB connectors on one end, make sure both of them are connected to the computer. You don’t need any external power supply for the enclosure because the hard drive gets power through USB ports. If the computer you are connecting the enclosure to runs Windows 2000 or higher, you will not need any device drivers. As soon as you connect the enclosure to the computer, the external hard drive should be detected and recognized automatically. After that the external hard drive will appear in My Computer and you can access it as any other hard drive in the computer.
If you are getting “Access denied” message when you are trying to access your files on the hard drive, you’ll have to take ownership of a file or folder.
My previous post explains how to connect a notebook hard drive to a desktop PC via IDE hard drive adapter.
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January 19th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Number 69, Possible because of a FAT setting or older computer/windows if they are old, its unlikley u can use the entire hdd expecially if it works fine on some other pc,
Number 68 Try this
go to start then run, type in CMD
in CMD type
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 Then press enter then type
start devmgmt_msc then pres enter again, device manager will open, go to view then show hidden devices, uninstall all greyed/ghosted hard drives and USB drives, then reboot with the drive connected, if windows fails to load do it wil it disconnected, then conect once loaded, if it still freeses, i may suggest the easiest soloution being a reinstall of windows
January 17th, 2009 at 10:04 am
i have a 120Gb hardrive from my laptop that I already put into a usb drive but my 2 pcs and my laptop recognize it as a 6GB hardrive. Why?
December 13th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I bought an enclosure and it worked perfectly fine the first two times I used it. After that though, every time I connected it to the desktop it would freeze my computer. While the USB cord is attached to the desktop nothing works and nothing happens; however, once I remove the USB cord everything runs normally again.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks,
Kevin
December 5th, 2008 at 11:52 am
You have provided information with great deal, i really like tips and trick section. I wish i had my laptop with me which I broke 1 year ago, wasn’t working due to some power issue.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
is there any way that any one can show the pin outs for a laptop hard drive, like the main pins that are use?
November 26th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Hi – Im having the exact same problem as 64 Istvan. Is there any that Im not doing? Ive connected the hard drive as per instruction. Many thanks!
November 25th, 2008 at 2:09 am
I had a same problem with my laptop hard drive but it I can’t access. It is not showing in my computer file. Sometime the small icon pop ups that is connected but it disappears. The 2 USB cables are connected. I have Builders XP professional on computer.
What now?
Thanks for the answer.
Istvan
November 13th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Thanks, Saved me more than $300 to have an “expert” access this drive, and now I have an external HD!
November 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Wish I had found this sooner.
I discovered this process myself after much labor.
I was able to recover hard drive I would have normally replace an thrown away. Imagine that.
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
i bought laptop and in my bluetooth is not working i do’nt not have a blue tooth hardware in it.many times i tried to fix it..but error cames up bluetooth hardware not found.can give me any suugessttion fr this thnks and you are othe all stuff is oke