Hard Drive

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Hi Folks,
Does anybody know how to retrieve data from an old HD? My mate PC went belly up, brought him self a new one. However his kids work is on the old and wanted to know if it could be retrieved. Any help would be appreciated.

 

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It might be. Depends on what happened to the PC really. What have you tried so far? What OS was it?

Harry.

 

If the HDD is ok then you could probably set it up as a slave drive and retrieve the data that way.

 

Yup raffaz has its the best way. If you set it as a slave. You may find it running a chkdsk(scandisk) at every startup. There is a way to stop this using the Command prompt. If you want the option's let me know. Chances are the drive would be dirty.

But yeh, best way is as stated by raffaz, set it as a slave. Access it through my computer and retrieve the data that way.

Elli5on

 

Hi Harry, Raffaz, Eli5on - sorry for late reply. And thanks for your replys.

They're using XP Home. I thought I would be able to put a new HD in and then setup the old HD (the one with the data on) as a slave like what Raffaz said or do I just setup the old HD as slave?

 

For a first attempt just stick the old HDD in the new machine as a slave.

Whether this will work will depend on just what went wrong with the previous machine.

Harry.

 

Hi Lads - I'll have to try that (setting old HDD drive to Slave) However, just pick up their old PC and this is where it’s strange. They have their old HDD IDE setup ok; however they have a new HDD sata setup to a Serial ATA RAID card plugged into a PCI slot, but nothing works. When I switch on the PC it boots automatically and a DOS screen appears stating:-

Press (ctrl + S) or F4 to entry RAID utility (Doesn’t work)

Strike F1 to retry boot (Repeats this line), F2 for setup utility

The only thing I can do is enter F2 setup utility and then the only thing that seems to be installed is

Secondary Drive 0 …………….CD-ROM Reader

No HDD or Floppy drive installed, yet everything seem to be plugged in ok. I don’t think the light on the Floppy lights up though, when booting.

Anyone got any ideas where it’s gone wrong? I will try the Slave setup option. I just what to see if I can get it up and running and retrieve there data that way.

 

SATA drives often won't appear in the BIOS screens - but should on the RAID adaptor screens.

It sounds as if this 'failure' was self inflicted! What happens if you remove the SATA adaptor leaving the old drive?

And check the connections on the old drive!

Harry.

 

Tricky... What happened to make the machine stop working??

Was the OS previously installed on the old IDE drive (set as master), and your Friend then decided to plug in a sata card and drive and expect it to work?

 

stuPeas you have got it stop on mate. His old HDD was full up, so he decided too add another one and I think he done it the way you said.

Arroryn / Harry I too thought it might be the IDE ribbons, I’m going to see if I can barrow some from work and switch them around.

 

Hi Folks - I've retrieved their data thanks to your help/guidance. I just setup the old HDD as a slave in my PC and it work fine. All his data was there.
Now its just the simple case of getting his old machine to work!!!???

 

did you manage to get some ribbon cables, as it looks like that may be the exact fauly as the hdd works as a slave in another comp?