trying to get info from an old hdd to my new lappie

[Sealy]

I took out the old hdd from old lappie
put it in an enclosure
hooked it up to my new lappie
it asks if I want to format it
I click no
says that it can't read the drive...


Any suggestions? I'm not a techie so speak slowly please

 

[bamacre]

Hi, Sealy! Was the drive working in the old laptop?

 

[ikky68]

You might have to import the foreign disk.

 

[ikky68]

Click on Start,> right mouse click on Computer, > click on Manage

On the left side of the window should be a disk management thingy...

 

[KGB]

Sealy!!

If the drive was working before and your enclosure doesn't have an external power supply, it might not be getting adequate current from the USB port.

Try to find a cable like this:

 

[Maverick6969]

I took out the old hdd from old lappie
put it in an enclosure
hooked it up to my new lappie
it asks if I want to format it
I click no
says that it can't read the drive...


Any suggestions? I'm not a techie so speak slowly please

Maybe your current laptop is FAT32 and your old laptop was formatted as NTFS or visa versa.

Another possibility is bad sectors. So run check disk on it.

Start | Run "chkdsk x: /r" (do not type the quotes)

replace X: with the actual drive letter of your old laptop drive.

Regarding KGBMan's suggestion above, I doubt that it's an issue of inadequate power. The operating system would mostly likely fail to see the drive if it was not powering up. Not only that, the kind of cable he's talking about should have already been provided to you when you bought the enclosure. However he's given me another idea. Try using another USB port on your laptop or try hooking it up to another computer and see if you have the same problem.

 

[Sealy]

Hi, Sealy! Was the drive working in the old laptop?

yes it was working...I replaced it myself just a couple months ago. NO JOKES about me wrecking my old laptop

 

[Sealy]

Sealy!!

If the drive was working before and your enclosure doesn't have an external power supply, it might not be getting adequate current from the USB port.

Try to find a cable like this:

I have that cable and that's what I'm hooking up my enclosure up to my new laptop with...

 

[Sealy]

Maybe your current laptop is FAT32 and your old laptop was formatted as NTFS or visa versa.

Another possibility is bad sectors. So run check disk on it.

Start | Run "chkdsk x: /r" (do not type the quotes)

replace X: with the actual drive letter of your old laptop drive.

Regarding KGBMan's suggestion above, I doubt that it's an issue of inadequate power. The operating system would mostly likely fail to see the drive if it was not powering up. Not only that, the kind of cable he's talking about should have already been provided to you when you bought the enclosure. However he's given me another idea. Try using another USB port on your laptop or try hooking it up to another computer and see if you have the same problem.

Sorry to be ignorant...but how do I find the "actual drive letter of my laptop drive" My screen is kaput so I can't access anything on my old laptop anymore.

 

[Maverick6969]

Sorry to be ignorant...but how do I find the "actual drive letter of my laptop drive" My screen is kaput so I can't access anything on my old laptop anymore.

This is the first time you have mentioned problems with your screen. I'm not sure I even understand you now. First you say you took out the hard drive from your old laptop and hooked it up to your new laptop. Now you got a problems w/ the screen on your NEW laptop?? Or are you referring to the old laptop?

Whatever...

Why don't you try hooking up an external monitor to your laptop? Have you thought about that?

Edit:

OK - I re-read your post and now I see what you're saying. Hook up your old hard drive to the new laptop. Open up the disk manager (type "diskmgmt.msc" no quotes) int he run command line. If the drive is recognized by the OS, the disk manager "should" assign a drive letter for it. If not, it might be listed in the disk manager as an unknown drive. In which case, you can always assign a drive letter from there.

 

[Sealy]

ok so it's the G drive and it's telling me now that I can't run a disk check because it's not formatted. I don't want to format it, as that means I lose everything on it, and that defeats the purpose....

 

[Maverick6969]

ok so it's the G drive and it's telling me now that I can't run a disk check because it's not formatted. I don't want to format it, as that means I lose everything on it, and that defeats the purpose....

Something is fubarred in that hard drive. In these types of situations, I prefer using a live linux CD. You can use something like PC Linux OS or Mandriva - boot up the computer with the live CD. Unless there is a mechanical/physical defect with the hard drive, Linux should be able to see your files w/ no problem so you can recover the data.

If you have never worked with a live CD before, post back and I'll help you further.

 

[Fallingwater]

Try a live Linux - Ubuntu is the easiest - and see if that recognizes it. If it doesn't, you probably need to have at it with Testdisk to recover the partitions. Now, the Ubuntu part you can do yourself, but Testdisk isn't the easiest program to use, so you probably want to get someone else to do it for you.

 

[Maverick6969]

Try a live Linux - Ubuntu is the easiest - and see if that recognizes it. If it doesn't, you probably need to have at it with Testdisk to recover the partitions. Now, the Ubuntu part you can do yourself, but Testdisk isn't the easiest program to use, so you probably want to get someone else to do it for you.

She may or may not need to recover the partitions. As as long as the Live CD can read the files, all she has to do is simply copy the files another hard drive.

Ubuntu is a popular distro amonst linux users but it is not any easier than PC Linux OS. Certainly not for this task.

 

[Lanyap]

Try this if you can. Put the old hard drive back in the old laptop and connect to an external monitor. You may need to use the key that toggles between the laptop monitor and the external monitor to get a display. If it boots up and you can see your data then buy an external disk drive and hook it up to the old laptop and copy your data. Or use a thumb drive if it holds all of your data. Switch the external drive to your new laptop and copy the data. When you are finished you now have a backup of your data on your external drive and a copy on your new laptop. You can use the external for future backups.

So you are a Canadian can can dancer. Nice video.

 

[Fallingwater]

She may or may not need to recover the partitions. As as long as the Live CD can read the files, all she has to do is simply copy the files another hard drive.

Which is why I said "if it doesn't".

 

[Sealy]

i'm lovin' all the replies, but it's getting a bit over my head I wish i was a bit more computer literate....

So you are a Canadian can can dancer. Nice video.

Yes i am on both accounts, and thank you

 

[Maverick6969]

i'm lovin' all the replies, but it's getting a bit over my head I wish i was a bit more computer literate....


Yes i am on both accounts, and thank you

Don't mind him, he's just a horny toad trying to look up your dress. hehe...:biggrin:
OK, getting back on topic Linux is open source operating system. Linux publishes various "live CDs" that you can run on your computer and you don't have to install it on your system. Rather, you boot up the computer with the live CD and then it runs all the information from the CD & RAM. (In another words, it doesn't touch your hard drive). That's why they call it a live CD.

I'm sure all the penguin lovers here will rave on about all the great reasons to use Linux. For your case, the only thing that you need to know is that it can see files on the hard drive even if the MBR is 'fu*kced'. Like I said in my previous post, I've used it many times to recover data off hard drives whenever Windows fails.

It really doesn't matter which distro you use. PC Linux OS, Ubuntu, they're all pretty easy to use and 'live cd' versions exist for many of them. I'm going to give you the download link for "Mandriva" which is in ISO format.

Mandriva
on the download page, look for:
One 2010.2
Installable live CD

You can't just burn the ISO file. To use it, you will need to first extract the ISO with an application like ImgBurn. When you start up ImgBurn, it will start up in EZ picker mode. Choose the very first one at the top, "Choose Image File to disc". Browse for the ISO file that you downloaded earlier. Before you click on 'Burn', check the option at the top right that says "verify" - this way the application will verify that the burned disc is a good quality burn before you start using the disc.

Once finished, boot up the new laptop with the Live CD. It will give you the option to either install it or boot up the "live" version. Choose the latter. When the desktop finally loads, you'll see a vague resemblance to a Windows setup. Click on the bottom left icon (similar to the Windows Start menu), look through the program menus, there should be something called "dolphin file manager". You should be able to use that to copy the files from your old hard drive onto your actual hard drive on the new laptop.

When you are done copying all the files from your old hard drive to the new, you can simply shut down, or reboot the computer. Again, this you will see in the "start menu" (for lack of a better word.... I don't know what penguins would call it).

One strong word of caution here. Whenever you are working in a Linux environment, you should always unmount removable devices like flash drives or any drive that is connected via USB when you want to disconnect. You'll be alright as long as you shut down or reboot - whatever you do, don't unplug usb devices while you're running in the live CD mode without unmounting first.

Edit for clarification.

If you want to unplug the USB drive while running the live CD, first unmount it. Otherwise, just shut down the system; unplug the usb drive; remove the live CD; and start using Windows.

 

[Maverick6969]

After re-reading my last post, it may sound like a daunting task to a newbie, but I assure it you that it's not that difficult. Just follow the steps and you'll be fine.

 

[Sealy]

After re-reading my last post, it may sound like a daunting task to a newbie, but I assure it you that it's not that difficult. Just follow the steps and you'll be fine.

ok, it won't be today...but I will attempt this! Thanks so much for your help Maverick

 

[Maverick6969]

Well I would start the download now because that 600 MB + file is going to take a while to finish downloading depending on fast your connection is.

 

[Sealy]

found the download but getting a page not found when i try to do the download...and it's a 32 bit, my lappie is a 64 bit, does that make a difference?

 

[Sealy]

oh wait...closed and opened it, and it's all good.