brubaker325 wrote:
> Geek Squad tells me the motherboard on my laptop has failed. As a result, I
> can't boot it up. How do I get the files transferred out to another laptop
> or desktop? Neither of which is new.
> Thanks.
When you remove the hard drive, it might have some kind of goofy adapter
on the interface pins.
Underneath that, if present, you'll either find a 44 pin IDE interface
(suitable for a ribbon cable connector scheme). Or, you'll see a SATA
interface, with a 7 contact data section and a 15 contact power section.
That means, there would be two different kinds of external hard drive
enclosures you could buy. Either a 2.5" SATA (newer) or a 2.5" IDE (older)
enclosure.
The enclosure electronics convert the drive interface to USB. You can
then run a USB cable from the newly-enclosed hard drive, to some
desktop computer with USB interface. When you plug in the drive, you
should see the old C: partition from the laptop (plus any other
partitions that might have existed on it). For 2.5" enclosures, the
drive could end up being "bus powered" from the limited 500 milliamps
available on the USB cable. (Sometimes, that isn't enough power to
run the drive, which is why you may be back with that to report, the
next time you post.)
This is an example of a 2.5" enclosure, with 44 pin IDE interface for
the drive.
http://members2.jcom.home.ne.jp/bd.mutuki/img/2.5hdd2.jpg
This enclosure isn't the right size, but is intended to show
an internal SATA interface. The 7 contact section and 15 contact
section are right next to each other. The drive snaps into that
connector with some care. There might be room for a screw somewhere
here, to keep the drive in place.
http://www.addonics.com/products/Saturn/image/aassauscs_detail.gif
*******
In addition to enclosures, you can also get a "loose cable" adapter
kit, intended for temporary setups. In the customer reviews for
these, one of the issues with them, is the AC power adapters are
so cheap now, they're failing and ruining hardware. Which is not
a particularly encouraging sign.
The adapter has connectors on three sides. This picture
shows the 44 pin side of the adapter.
http
/images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-119-152-S02?$S640W$
The 40 pin connector, for 3.5" desktop drives, is on this side.
http
/images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-119-152-S03?$S640W$
The 7 pin SATA data connection, is on the end of the adapter.
It is an "L" shaped hole.
That means the adapter supports four different kinds of drives,
2.5" IDE, 2.5" SATA, 3.5" IDE, 3.5" SATA. (The SATA drives use the
same cabling as each other.) A separate power adapter and power cables,
provide power for a couple of those device options. The 2.5" IDE
may end up drawing power from the USB cable (again, which can cause
issues with getting the drive to spin up and be readable).
In this photo for a different product, you can see all the odds and
ends you get in a kit. This kit is $20.
http
/images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-156-017-S06?$S640W$
As with the external USB enclosures, those "loose cable" adapter
kits also have USB interfaces. So the function is no different
than the enclosure idea. If you didn't have any advance warning
of the type of drive you were going to work on (i.e. a friend is
bringing *some* kind of drive over), such a $20 kit
prepares you for whatever happens to be inside the laptop.
One difference is, the exposure of the bad power adapters
that may accompany the adapter kit. If you read customer
reviews, you can get some advanced warning of what to expect
from a particular brand. The last enclosure I bought here,
had its own AC adapter, and it has behaved quite nicely,
neither getting hot nor blowing up. So it is possible for
the Chinese to make good adapters.
*******
You can also connect hard drives, to an internal port inside your
desktop computer. To connect a 44 pin IDE drive, you need a
44 pin IDE to 40 pin IDE adapter. You can see a picture of one
of those here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119245
The purpose of that adapter, is to convert the 2mm center to center
pins of a 2.5" laptop drive, to the 0.1" center to center spacing
of a 40 pin desktop ribbon cable connector. The power plug shown in
the picture, is a means of providing 5 volts to the hard drive.
You would connect the power plug, to an available 1x4 Molex inside
the computer.
In this picture, it shows a 2.5" IDE drive with 44 pin connector,
going through an adapter, and then being connected to the ribbon cable
inside a desktop computer. They haven't connected their power connector
yet, but have to, before it'll work.
http://www.mocom.ru/Read/1_read/1_read_2.jpg
If you could not get an external USB enclosure to work with the
drive, you'd switch over to attempting to do it with an internal
desktop computer connection. This normally requires taking the
side panel off the computer. Some desktop computers use the
"sandwich" packaging concept, where the machine tilts open via
a hinge. And that is a damn nuisance to work on (I have an
Apple Macintosh that works like that). I have to clear a
space on the kitchen floor to work on that one. I have to be
careful not to overstress the hinge or any cabling inside.
The SATA version of the 2.5" drive, could be connected directly
to a desktop computer. All you'd need is an available 7 contact data
and 15 contact power cable (usually two separate cables). The laptop
may have had an adapter clipped over top of the regular SATA interface,
in case you can't figure out why you cannot connect to it. Any
laptop adapter has to be removed first.
This picture is to show you what a SATA connector on a 2.5" drive would
look like. The connectors on this are compatible with desktop SATA
wiring. (When hard drives get down to 1.8" size, the SATA connector
changes again, and for that, there is a "micro connector". But
we don't have to worry about that right now. Micro to regular adapters
are hard to find.)
http://www.techpowerup.com/img/08-11-24/xpgssd2_5sataii2.jpg
There are some more pictures here.
http://www.datarecoverytutorial.com/recover-data-from-failed-laptop-notebook/comment-page-1
*******
If you're having trouble making sense of what you're seeing, post
back and describe what you see.
If describing it is too hard, take a picture with a digital
camera, then post the picture on imageshack.us , then post
a copy of the URL that leads to the picture in your next posting.
That way, someone here can look at the picture, and tell you
whether there is an adapter in the way, and what kind of drive
it is. But with that datarecoverytutorial.com web page above, you'll
likely be able to figure it out pretty quick.
Paul
