getting files from hard drive

[amourbliss]

Ok so I'm selling some of my computers and have gotten all important files from my Compaq desktop, but need to find a way to get the off my R52. It will not turn on as it is giving me the error 1802...even though i didn't put in a new network card. So, I removed the hard drive and am wondering what I need to do to get my files from it. The guy who fixed my R52 before told me they could put all of my files on a usb drive...is this something I could do myself? What would I need to get? I just really want my wedding photos...and college portfolio!!! Any help is appreciated I tried searching, but maybe I was using the wrong keywords!!

[Marin85]

There are a few ways to accomplish such a thing. Do you know how big is what you want to copy from this HD in total? Here a few possibilities:
1. Attach the HD to your desktop (if you have a spare slot/appropriate interface), it should be able to read it without problem if the HD and the connector are not faulty.
2. Get external USB drive, some Linux LiveCD (of the latest like Ubuntu 8.10 that could work with NTFS/FAT), boot your ThinkPad into Linux from the LiveCD, you should be then able to access both file systems, copy. Actually, if those files are not so big in total size, you could use an USB flash media as well. (Alternatively to Linux you could use some windows "LiveCD" (like Acronis bootable media), but these are rather hard to find/create. Ubuntu 8.10 is pretty user-friendly, so even if you don´t have much experience with Linux, it shouldn´t be a problem.)

There are also some more variations of USB + ultrabay + HD in question, but I think the two above are the easiest.

Hope this helps

Marin

[schen]

Probably the simplest thing to do is to buy an inexpensive cable that's USB on one end and has a number of interfaces on the other. Some are Parallel only, some are SATA only, some are both. They generally cost less than $20 from any of the larger computer specialty retailers such as Fry's or Micro Center. That will allow you to connect the drive to most any computer and copy the data over. Over the years, I've found them to be extremely useful for both laptop and desktop drives.

The other thing is that the 1802 error is typically generated by the insertion of a WiFi card that's not in the "white list" in the BIOS. There is a hack to get rid of it, but if you intention is merely to boot the machine to get the data off, then just take the WiFi card out and the machine should boot as normal.

[hausman]

Probably the simplest thing to do is to buy an inexpensive cable that's USB on one end and has a number of interfaces on the other...

An excellent one is Apricorn's Drivewire USB Hard Disk Drive adapter. It has both SATA and PATA (2.5" and 3.5") as well as cloning software. I've seen them on sale for as little as $20 but they're worth several times as much.

[schen]

An excellent one is Apricorn's Drivewire USB Hard Disk Drive adapter. It has both SATA and PATA (2.5" and 3.5") as well as cloning software. I've seen them on sale for as little as $20 but they're worth several times as much.

Apricorn is one of the best. IBM used them for years as an OEM supplier for some of their outboard HDD and HDD upgrade products.