Can I recover data from hard drive in broken PC?

googler

Seconded - you don't need a caddy if you have two machines.

On the assumption that each machine has one HDD, take the HDD out of the faulty machine and install it as the secondary drive in the good machine. Change the jumper setting from Master to Slave if installing on same IDE channel as the primary in the good machine, but as said, if you have a CD or DVD drive on the other IDE channel, that can be temporarily disconnected and put the HDD on there as a master.

If both are IDE or SATA, all good and well. If one is IDE, the other SATA, you can get adaptors from places like Maplin.

Changing HDDs is easy. You may need a small screwdriver and spare mounting screws (Maplin again) or the HDD may be held by mounting clips on more modern machines.

Google 'changing HDD' or 'installing HDD' or similar terms for loads of guidance from other sites, including video tutorials on places like YouTube.

busenbust

londonman81 wrote: »

My other PC yesterday gave up booting so I am unable to get to the desktop, access files etc.

Is it possible to somehow connect another PC to it and recover the files which are on the HDD of the broken PC?

Or is there any other method to recover files from the broken PC?

Thanks

ah, just assumed the secondary machine might be 'borrowed'. yep, u save yourself some money

londonman81

spakkker wrote: »

You may not even need a caddy -if you can take h/d out simply install into 2nd pc same way ,you can use the dvd connections for temp. If it's sharing the same cable as existing h/d you have to set a small connector to slave on the non-boot h/d -if sate no prob.

edit: it's most likely the software not working(windows) rather than broken h/d

I've just been out to get a caddy from Maplin...

Took out the old HDD and nearly finished connecting it up to the caddy except that the power cable in the caddy seems to be different from the one in the old PC...the caddy has four/five round holes in the power connector whereas the original PC power supply had a flat power connector...so now I can't connect the caddy pwoer to the HDD power ...

And I've been told I can't return the caddy either!

amcluesent

Sounds like you have a fully SATA drive; your choice of caddy may not have been ideal. You need a molex/sata power converter -

spud17

So, does the data cable fit?

spakkker

4 round holes = molex , flat connector= sata you can get molex to sata connectors as posted above

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/search/sata+to+molex+connectors?var=isrpall&rvr_id=157598888235&crlp=1089467617_284591_284631&UA=WXI7&GUID=de258bdb12b0a47a26a3bd33ff7d68bb&agid=464173957&tm_kw=sata+to+molex+connectors&siteid=3&MT_ID=10&tt_encode=raw&keyword=sata+to+molex+connectors&geo_id=21&ff4=284591_284631

Or maplin are showing a one piece (no wire in middle) connector- but beware there might not be enough room in the caddy to connect a non-wired connector.

Maybe there is an adaptor already in one of the pc's you can use for now or simply fit h/d in without using caddy ,sata has no jumpers to move.

londonman81

spakkker wrote: »

4 round holes = molex , flat connector= sata you can get molex to sata connectors as posted above

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/search/sata+to+molex+connectors?var=isrpall&rvr_id=157598888235&crlp=1089467617_284591_284631&UA=WXI7&GUID=de258bdb12b0a47a26a3bd33ff7d68bb&agid=464173957&tm_kw=sata+to+molex+connectors&siteid=3&MT_ID=10&tt_encode=raw&keyword=sata+to+molex+connectors&geo_id=21&ff4=284591_284631

Or maplin are showing a one piece (no wire in middle) connector- but beware there might not be enough room in the caddy to connect a non-wired connector.

Maybe there is an adaptor already in one of the pc's you can use for now or simply fit h/d in without using caddy ,sata has no jumpers to move.

I found a second power adaptor in the bag which came with the caddy - lucky it fits.

I've installed the HDD into caddy, connected to PC via USB and powered it up with new PC on. PC seems to recognise it, however I can't seem to find the files I used to have on old PC under 'My Documents' etc or the files on my Desktop.

It seems to show program files etc....

Am I missing something??

busenbust

londonman81 wrote: »

I found a second power adaptor in the bag which came with the caddy - lucky it fits.

I've installed the HDD into caddy, connected to PC via USB and powered it up with new PC on. PC seems to recognise it, however I can't seem to find the files I used to have on old PC under 'My Documents' etc or the files on my Desktop.

It seems to show program files etc....

Am I missing something??

u might have to dig deeper into the folders; they might not be generically labeled as in old machine.

londonman81

busenbust wrote: »

u might have to dig deeper into the folders; they might not be generically labeled as in old machine.

Curiously - it adds two new drives when I switch on the caddy - an F drive and a 'Backup G' drive....

The F drive contains Program Files, dell folder, driver folders etc while the 'Backup G' drive contains just three folders (containing almost nothing) along with an old pdf and an AUTORUN notepad file.

Where would I usually find folders which were previously on desktop?

Thanks

amcluesent

>Am I missing something??<

Assuming you were using the NTFS file-system on the old PC, you may have to 'take ownership' of the User files/directories to make the content accessible.

>Where would I usually find folders which were previously on desktop?<

Depends on the OS used on the failed PC