Computer hard drive recovery question
 

My old computer quit working properly last year and I promptly replaced it with a new one. When my old computer stopped I just put it in a closet, hoping I would be able to recover any pictures that I had not saved to CD before it dying someday.

Well that day has finally come and I want to try and retrieve those pictures. So my question is, does anyone here now how I can tap into my hard drive of my old computer and retrieve those documents? Or are there people that can do this? They show these kind of things on TV all the time so I figured it was possible.

TIA

Here is an article you may find useful. It should be all you need to know to install the HDD from your old computer as a secondary HDD in your new computer.

Don't let it intimidate you...it's really a pretty simple process.

Randy

Thanks Randy!

buy a USB case and install the old HD into it, then, you can simply connect it to your new system, run utilities against it, retrieve data, etc......

As above. I would put the drive in a USB enclosure and try that first.

Yep, a USB case is cool, too. But, the best feature of the way I mentioned is...it's FREE! :D

Randy

I've seen more than one person go psychotic trying to get the master/slave jumpers/cable thing working correctly and ending up not being able to boot :)

It's really not that difficult. The MASTER is the drive he currently has in his new computer. The SLAVE is the drive from his old computer. Typically, it's just a matter of jumpering the master to be the MASTER and the slave to be the SLAVE. (Leave the CABLE SELECT out of it)

By convention, the master drive is attached to the connector on the IDE cable that is farthest from the motherboard (that is, the one at the very end of the cable) and closest to the off-center middle connector. On an 80-conductor cable, the connectors are also color-coded: The master gets connected to the black connector, the slave to the gray, and the blue to the motherboard.

Click here for more info.

Randy

Matt,

What happened to the PC in the first place? Did the hard drive die or did something else kick?

Rick, I don't know exactly what happened. My guess since I don't know a whole lot about computers is I got a virus. Or the fact that it was 6.5 years old and only a 300 mhz processor (which is like 100 years old in computer life, I'm told) it just committed computer suicide.

What sucks is there are only 50-60 pictures I really want. They are of the construction of my shop, from the very beginning to the final coat of paint and cars in it. I had planned to transfer them all to disk, and then have them printed out and put in an album.

Matt,
Perhaps you can start with a boot disk with a virus scan. Get the thing up enough to pull the data. Does it have a USB port? If not use a zip or jaz drive via the parallel port. I can lend to you if you don't have access.

If you can't get it done let me know. I'll hook it up and retrieve what you need. (better have some good porno on there though :D )

If I went and purchased a new hard drive (for more/additional space than the current one), can the new drive then be hooked up with this process?

1. Is there room (space) in an older case for an additional hard drive to be placed?

2. Are all new hard drives compatible with older systems?

3. If so, how do you install windows or other operating systems, into a new drive if the new drive is a slave drive? (or is this possible?)

4. Where does the connection go for the additional hard drive, if the current/older one is already hooked up to the computer?

Thanks

These are pretty general answers. If you post specifics on your system you'll get better detail. Probably worth starting a thread.

Rick & Randy thanks for the help. I was able to install the old hard drive into a loaner computer and check for files. This was more intimidating to me than adjusting 911 valves for the first time. But turned out to be very easy. Unfortunatley whatever happened wiped it clean. Not a trace of any of my old files or folders. So it has a date with the H&K next time I go out shooting.

You can buy utilities to "undelete" old files. I have one. Don't remember what it is called. They are available online, at Best Buy, etc.

Thanks for the tip legion! I'll check on that.

Every once in a while I contribute something useful.

I'll try not to make a habit of it.

Did you install it as the primary (master) or secondary (slave)?

If you put it in as the primary drive and it appeared that there was nothing on it, that might not really be the case. That could just mean that it is not bootable which could be the result of a virus. Setting it up as a second hard drive in another machine might still work.

I set it up as a slave and as a primary.

Norton disk doctor has a file recovery utility. There are probably free ones out there too. Try a Google.