trying to extract data off a laptop drive

Koo Koo Mouse · Post by **Koo Koo Mouse** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:33 pm

Hi all!
Doing this for a freind that has dead laptop.. The keys were pecked off by a bird and a kid wreck the LCD. LOL!
The HD was removed years ago and stored..
I think I'm doing the right thing here And pic is worth a thousand words..
It just a little 10 dollar thing but doesn't seem to take hold.
What it will do is:
Spins up once hooked to Usb power and the LED will stay red and I will
get a device found sound (do da), Then the Led will turn green and get a dissconnect sound (do doh)..
other notes:
- I have never seen it show up as a drive.
- XP did see it as a mass storage device did try to install some driver but they failed.. (I was busy and missed it) can't replicate it so far.
- Installed the latest drivers from masscool (Win 98 SE) Hmmm..

The drive may be shot really.. After listening to it and the lite turns green I can hear the arm servo kick in with a little circuit screem and it "slams" pretty hard.. Then the (do doh) sound.

Just checking to see if anyone has any ideas thats all..

Thanks!

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:36 am

Put the drive in a zip lock baggie and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes then try it again. Might be enough to get files off of it. One time I actually took a heat gun and got one to work again.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:55 am

That is the normal hookup for a laptop IDE interface. Those 4 pins off by themselves are jumpers. There is no power connector - it's integrated into the one mini-IDE connector.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:27 am

what the others said, plus sometimes you can find a physical position where it will actually read - try sideways, upside down, 45 degree angle, etc. I have a regular ide hdd that i've been getting bits and pieces from when it feels like it.

Koo Koo Mouse · Post by **Koo Koo Mouse** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:30 pm

Hey thanks Guys!
Ive tryed Cold, Warm, Hot, Fliped on all 6 and getting into angles now.
Now I need to try a combo of all posibilities. Should take about 25 years.

LOL!
But really I heard it start to take once.. The heads were digging for data but failed after about ten seconds.

Looks pretty hopless, Just wanted to make sure I was doing things right..
Thanks all.

KKM

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:02 pm

One thing to note is that I've often had issues with some laptop drives not wanting to work with USB enclosures. If you have a direct IDE converter, it's much more reliable.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:02 pm

Run Spinrite on it at level 2 if you have a copy. Then try to copy the data off it.