Dead T40. How do I get stuff from the hard drive?

[cuzman]

My girlfriend's T40 is pretty much dead, barring a new motherboard. I have attempted a re-flow which didn't work. She is doing a PhD, so in the time before I get her a new motherboard I need to access the hard drive from her T40 so she can get on with her work to do with "British colonialist sites in India and their future potential" and enlighten the world to knowledge that no-one else has (probably). I have a desktop and another (Toshiba) laptop but what do I need to access the T40's hard drive?

Is there a simple 2.5" to 3.5" converter? Where would the power come from? Ideally I would like to open up my desktop and somehow attatch the 2.5" drive to a 3.5" IDE channel on my desktop. What works? I've never done this before.

And by the way, there is also a Windows password on bootup, so would that cause a problem?

TIA.

[aaa]

There is a 2.5-3.5 converter. They come with a molex connector for their power. I prefer the USB converters/enclosures though.


If you have trouble with permissions accessing the files then you need to "take ownership" of them, it's an option deep under Properties. So no, having a password isn't a big problem.

[joester]

I would invest in a 2.5 USB enclosure, and put the HDD in it.

USB portability and compatible with about anything.

I don't believe the PWD will be a problem, since you're not booting from it... Unless your BIOS can be configured to look for a USB drive to boot from....then you just boot from the drive.

Joe

[al7kz]

Here's one of the adapters. Make sure it is hooked up correctly though, or you'll be putting power into the 2.5 where you don't want it.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid ... LK&cat=CCD

[mgo]

My girlfriend's T40 is pretty much dead, barring a new motherboard. I have attempted a re-flow which didn't work. She is doing a PhD, so in the time before I get her a new motherboard I need to access the hard drive from her T40 so she can get on with her work
TIA.

I'm going to sound like a "Parent" here, but please, oh please, when you get access to that crucial work of hers, also create a backup plan. I've literally had people cry to me on the phone when I did tech support because they lost years of work and had never done backups.

Also, there are professional services that will be able to rescue that data from a dead drive, but it's terribly expensive. Might be worth it, however, to retrieve years of research.

[rbena]

Also, there are professional services that will be able to rescue that data from a dead drive, but it's terribly expensive.

If you're having trouble accessing files, you may want to first try PC Inspector File Recovery, available at:
http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?Language=1

It's an excellent freeware file recovery program.