No problem at all. I've been doing a job that's about 50/25/25 split on tech/sysadmin/infosec for almost 15 years, and I've still been learning endless mountains of info from this sub in the last few months. IMO it's only right I contribute when I can. If you need any specific recommendations on anything or any more details on anything above, just hit me up. I can think of a few more things I use fairly regularly, but the list was already getting super long. For example, I make very regular use of something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538 they come in a bagillion different brands/styles/featuresets...that's the one I have at home, at work I've got a Vantec something or other.
I can also recommend a few small software tools I use fairly regularly, but they'll mostly be tailored towards a windows environment.
Even if Windows won't load, you should still be able to retreive data using an external drive dock/caddy. This assumes, however, that the issue isn't harddrive failure and you've got a second PC to transfer the data to.
I agree that, at this point, a factory reset/reinstall of the OS seems like your best option. You just might not need to lose any data in the process.
If you HAVE to spend money, buy a cheap hard drive dock such as this: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538
Take the hard drive out of its plastic enclosure/shell and put it into the dock. Plug the dock into your computer.
I don't think this fits your need, but there's options like this:
Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD [Support UASP] (DS-UBLK) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IKAQ538/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_qq8wzbFKF5SR5
Again, the use case is more for tinkerers and repair techs who might want to throw a drive in temporarily to pull data or load an image.
For your case, aren't there multi-bay enclosures you could rack mount? I've seen some but they might not make sense for your need.
About the only thing I can think of is to remove the hard drive, put it in a carrier, plug the carrier into another computer and get off your important stuff before it completely dies:
IF the hard drive is dying, this may not work. If you have any techie friends, they may already have a dock that you can borrow instead of buying one.
> 1- The start button + p?
Yes, the start button + P. Use that keyboard shortcut a couple of times to see if your monitor gets a signal from the laptop's hdmi port.
> 2- sata means what?
Sata is the connector that hard drives and SSD's use to connect to the computer. You would want to buy something like this for $22 USD to turn your hard drive into a USB external hard drive. There are cheaper enclosures if this one is out of your price range.
> 3- How do I connect the hard drive if all I have are laptops?
See my above answer about buying a sata to usb connector.
> 4- How much do they charge for this kind of thing?
I don't know what is Geek Squad's pricing scheme for these things, but assume that it will cost more than the other options. I remember a computer shop nearby my place charging $50 dollars just to look at the laptop and tell you what is wrong.
I'm far from a data recovery specialist, but years ago I bought one of these and I can't tell you how many pictures and documents I've recovered from "dead" laptops with it. Usually as a hail mary for a laptop thats gotten wet, or fried mobo dead ram etc.
Ah ok, I thought you meant a tray for inside the computer.
For an external enclosure there are lots of options. I used to use some cheap Rosewill enclosures which I didn't have any problems with, but now I use this dock so I can swap drives more easily.
It really comes down to features and aesthetics, pick whatever works for you.
I used to do what you're suggesting, but those little external drives are just so handy to have, it's not worth it to me anymore to keep larger format ones around. They might be a little slower when moving a bunch of large files onto them, but not having external power is soooo nice. I have several of those WD Passport Ultras, but in 1TB size.
You could also consider something like this CDN$ 26.99 USB3.0 drive dock, so you can swap in and out other drives at will. I prefer those for some things, rather than lots of enclosures. I actually have a 2-drive dock where I keep a 1TB 'slow drive', and a 240gb SSD. I dump video recordings onto the SSD, then process them onto the 1TB. Works great.
First of all, I would say it might behoove you to buy a bare HD dock. After all, it won't hurt to have when you start doing regular Time Machine backups, right?
Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538
Second of all, if you're trying to do just copy files over as a backup, either designate it a Time Machine volume or just copy your entire user folder. As long as you're doing it from a user with the same name/id, it should allow it.
EDIT: If you're trying to copy these files from one HD to another on a Windows machine, you're not going to have a good time, btw. I don't think it's really worth even attempting.
Also, if you want a full clone of your old HD to a new, bigger HD you can just launch Disk Utility and do a Restore from the old drive to the new. That will clone the operating system and all your installed apps and settings as well as your data files.
If you want to just copy data over, a SATA to USB cable would be easiest. If you don't want to spend money, you could swap out the hard drives in your new laptop, copy needed files over to a flash drive or upload them to a cloud service such as Google Drive, switch the hard drives back out, and then retrieve the copied files from your flash drive or online service.
Alternatively, pick up one of these!
One last question, and I'm done bugging you.
It turns out my external hard drive is a SATA drive, which I figured it was. I also live in Canada, so a lot of shit I buy ends up being a bit more expensive than in the US. That being said, would I be alright with going with this: https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458941723&sr=8-1&keywords=startech+hard+drive+docking+station
I don't mind shelling out 30 bucks or so to get my files back, plus I also get extra storage back, which is good.
more something like this then use the second drive you bought in that dock. and transport it to an offsite location, then bring it back weekly, or whenever you add more content to update it.
Like flabbott1 has said, it has probably cooked the motherboard, they don't tend to like liquid too much and once again, check the age, anything over 3 years isn't worth salvaging. Fortunately, i'd say all her files and pictures on the hard drive are safe. So it would be worth getting someone you know to remove it from the notebook. (have a look on youtube for the model of the notebook, there are some pretty helpful videos on how to do this if you want to give it a go your self.) Next find / borrow / purchase a USB HDD dock and drop the HDD into that. Plug it into another computer that works and recover which files you need. :) Hope this helps.
Well as I mentioned, if you wanted to use your internal drive for backup, you would have to buy an adapter like THIS, or if you wanted to keep it inside your desktop, you could simply send files between your laptop and desktop via your local network. If you're just looking for a backup solution, I would personally go for a portable external drive, as they are the most convenient for that use, especially with multiple machines.
Can you use a hard drive dock suck as this:
and an hard drive on the side to use as an external hard drive?
or should I just get an external hard drive?
First thing I'd suggest a full backup once you purchase a new unit and get it all squared away. Just in case anything bad happens. Should always have backups.
You can just purchase an external HD dock. Remove the old drive and put it in the dock and copy the files over to the new PC.
Someone else posted a similar solution for about $10 however this isn't much more. It's a little more durable in my opinion. I have this actual model and two other high end ones. Icy Dock makes one for about $50 if you happen to need SATA and IDE capability.
Yes, I think this would work. You could also use something like this, http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538/ref=sr_1_1?&s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437367227&sr=1-1&keywords=hard+drive+docking+station . The cable that you originally bought can't power 3.5 inch drives, only 2.5 inch ones.
If anyone else needs to do this but dosent want to install it in the computer one of these is really handy. Works great, used it to combine some data off drives when i upgraded my old PC recently.
I was also having issues with an external drive. I pulled it out of the case and dropped it into a drive dock (like this one - very handy and not expensive). Drive itself is fine and still usable - but the case just sucked. Or sucked with Yosemite.
This.
https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538
I have a 2-bay unit i got off amazon for 30 bucks CAD. my hard drive toaster kicks ass and i use it every time i need to copy data from one pc to another.
If the hard drive is still working, the easiest way is probably to buy a SATA drive cradle that connects to another computer with USB.
Something like this, this is just the first one google found.
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538
Take the drive out of the computer and plug it into a dock and it should show up as an external drive on whatever PC you connect the dock to.
Or maybe even simpler: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-EC-SSHD/dp/B011M8YACM
If the hard drive has failed, neither of these will do anything for you.
maybe something like this:
How about this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538
It seems to have good reviews, and will probably get me where I want to go. The key here is
> up to 4TB
Just get a dock like this.
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538
It's USB only but there may be a eSATA version out there.
you should always use a powered dock , as some drives require more power than a usb port can deliver
If this is a new new build then it wouldn't hurt to reinstall the operating system. If that doesn't resolve the issue then it could be a hardware issue. Try the following:
You have two sticks of RAM so take one out and boot the computer. If that doesn't give any answer remove the other stick and reinsert the one you previously pulled out and boot
If you have a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) then trying testing it using free hard drive tools like SeaTools from Seagate or Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic. It might be best to connect the hard drive to another computer using a docking station since your computer is always freezing.
To help us out try listing the things you have already tried.
what do you mean by 8GB per slot ?
also https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538
If it's a 3.5 inch hard drive, it needs more power than a usb port can provide. You will need to use a hard drive dock or enclosure than has external power:
You can simply remove the harddrive from your old computer and put it in this, which connects to your computer.
You could check with a docking station: http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538/ Before that I would boot an ubuntu live cd to verify the hdd is not being detected