mainboard has died, how to salvage drive contents?

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supernova87a · #1 Post by **supernova87a** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:38 pm

Hi all, the problem of my T40 not recognizing battery power finally blew up ending with a dead laptop (should have recognized the signs), and now I think the main board is toast.

Is there any way (or gadget I can use) to transfer the hard disk contents to another computer though?

thanks!

#2 Post by **jdhurst** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:50 pm

It is very easy (not free). You get an ultrabay hard drive adapter, put the drive in the ultrabay adapter and put this in a working machine. You can then get the data very easily. ... JD Hurst

agarza · #3 Post by **agarza** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:00 pm

Buy a cheap USB 2.0 enclosure for 2.5" HDD:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-2-5-inch-USB-2- ... otohosting

Cheaper than buying a Ultrabay Slim adapter. also you can plug it in any computer

tom lightbody · #4 Post by **tom lightbody** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:35 pm

if you have access to a PC, another way--yet cheaper--is
a 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch adapter such as eBay item 150047405158.

gauthier · #5 Post by **gauthier** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:23 pm

jdhurst & others: what happen if he has hd password protection?

#6 Post by **jdhurst** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:35 pm

gauthier wrote:jdhurst & others: what happen if he has hd password protection?

It can vary, but normally when you try to access the drive, it will challenge for the password, so just supply it.
... JD Hurst

christopher_wolf · #7 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:45 pm

If the HDD password is over 8 characters, you might run into some problems as there are some systems that don't support HDD passwords over 8 characters.

EOMtp · #8 Post by **EOMtp** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:49 pm

tom lightbody wrote:if you have access to a PC, another way--yet cheaper--is
a 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch adapter...

Warning: This will permit the copying of the contents of the old drive to the new drive using a desktop PC, but the resulting drive may NOT be accessible on a Thinkpad -- depends on the specific drive and capacity -- since the drive geometry used by Thinkpad BIOSs differs from the drive geometry used by non-Thinkpad BIOSs.

supernova87a · #9 Post by **supernova87a** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:08 pm

thanks so much for all these solutions! no password on my drive, so I think this will rescue me!

agarza · #10 Post by **agarza** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:51 pm

EOMtp wrote:
tom lightbody wrote:if you have access to a PC, another way--yet cheaper--is
a 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch adapter...
Warning: This will permit the copying of the contents of the old drive to the new drive using a desktop PC, but the resulting drive may NOT be accessible on a Thinkpad -- depends on the specific drive and capacity -- since the drive geometry used by Thinkpad BIOSs differs from the drive geometry used by non-Thinkpad BIOSs.

That depends: If the drive still has the Predesktop Area partition (IBM_SERVICE) then you're right. But you can fix it downloading hitachi Feature Tool and then reclaim that space, allowing any laptop to see 100% the disk capacity and hence reading all the content properly

EOMtp · #11 Post by **EOMtp** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:28 am

benottomex wrote:That depends: If the drive still has the Predesktop Area partition (IBM_SERVICE) then ...

No; this has nothing to do with my warning above, which refers to the anomaly the orginal poster noted, i.e., the machine presents nothing more than a blinking cursor during POST. That is the result of the incompatible disk geometry created by a non-IBM BIOS, an incompatibility which results in rendering the BIOS unable to reach even a point where something is displayed on the screen during POST. This anomaly has nothing to do with the logical contents of the drive.

#12 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:55 am

EOMtp is correct. See following for more info. Hard disk geometry thread

mainboard has died, how to salvage drive contents?

mainboard has died, how to salvage drive contents?

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