How can I get data off a notebook drive?

cncaudata

My sister in law has a Gateway MT-275 E convertable laptop which, due to the nature of floppy wiggly convertable laptop displays, has had its display go dead. She'd love to get a new machine, but of course the disk has a bunch of media on it she'd like to save (some is backed up, but not all).

Now, the machine still boots (when the power cord is strategically propped in exactly the right position and you don't breath on it), but I can't get it to display on an external monitor via function keys. I don't have another laptop I can put the drive in (it appears to be SATA, and I don't have anything that new).

Are there external enclosures available for generic 2.5 inch drives? Or, is there some mysterious way to mount a crappy gateway as an external drive (I always loved that you could do this with powerbooks). Is there any other way to get the thing to display to an external monitor?

Foomy

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156015&cm_re=usb_to_2.5_drive-_-12-156-015-_-Product for ide drives or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156014&cm_re=usb_to_2.5_drive-_-12-156-014-_-Product for sata

could probably find them a few dollars cheaper if you really search, but $15 really isnt that much, and they are really useful things to have around.

corky842

Instead of that adapter, I would suggest something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159090
Cheaper, and you can use the laptop drive as an external drive when you have what you need off of it.

cncaudata

Excellent ideas, both. Thank you!

Mace1370

Would both of those work for a desktop SATA hard drive? Or would I need to get a bigger enclosure?

Pirusu

Mace1370 wrote: »

Would both of those work for a desktop SATA hard drive? Or would I need to get a bigger enclosure?

The Sabrent cable will work regardless of size.

If your hard drive is the standard 3.5", you'll need a larger enclosure. For which there are plenty.

Mace1370

Pirusu wrote: »

Mace1370 wrote: »

Would both of those work for a desktop SATA hard drive? Or would I need to get a bigger enclosure?

The Sabrent cable will work regardless of size.

If your hard drive is the standard 3.5", you'll need a larger enclosure. For which there are plenty.

Excellent, thanks!

Pirusu

Mace1370 wrote: »

Pirusu wrote: »

Mace1370 wrote: »

Would both of those work for a desktop SATA hard drive? Or would I need to get a bigger enclosure?

The Sabrent cable will work regardless of size.

If your hard drive is the standard 3.5", you'll need a larger enclosure. For which there are plenty.

Excellent, thanks!

No problem! I do want to clarify that you don't need both the cable and the enclosure. The enclosure is just a little more permanent, and if it doesn't come with it, you'll need a USB cable. It essentially turns your internal drive into an external one.

The cable does basically the same thing, but doesn't protect the drive. I'd say in most cases the cable is cheaper, but either solution will work.

General_Win

Also for some HP laptops they put a little "extender" over the regular SATA connectors. ALL SATA drives, regardless of physical size, data size, age, what-have-you, all use the same connectors.

I only mention this as my friend's HP laptop had an "extender" and it confused the hell out of him.