Computer Hope
Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: squib23 on December 07, 2010, 05:16:25 AM
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My Dell Studio 15 stopped working a few months ago. I haven't had time to try to fix for it, and didn't want to shell out 300$ to simply get it fixed so I thought I'd try and try myself. All I'm trying to do is recover the contents of the hard drive.
I bought this enclosure:
http://www.crazysales.com.au/ritmo-2-5-inch-usb-2-0-sata-esata-hard-disk-hdd-mesh-enclosure-in-black_p5457.html
And managed to remove the hard drive from the Dell and place it in that enclosure. I connected that to my current laptop and the hard drive shows up on the laptop. Two hard drive files specifically; one is called RECOVERY (F:) and the other is Local Disk (G:). I can look through (F:) but there isn't much to see. I can't go into (G:) though, Windows just freezes when I try to do so. How do I go about recovering files from (G:)? I've heard things like "slaving" it or something, I'm not sure what it is, but then I've also heard SATA drives (which I think this Dell's HDD is) don't require to be slaved.
Are there any good, preferably free, programs available? Or is there anything else I can do?
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...And managed to remove the hard drive from the Dell and place it in that enclosure. I connected that to my current laptop and the hard drive shows up on the laptop. Two hard drive files specifically; one is called RECOVERY (F:) and the other is Local Disk (G:). I can look through (F:) but there isn't much to see. I can't go into (G:) though, Windows just freezes when I try to do so. How do I go about recovering files from (G:)? I've heard things like "slaving" it or something, I'm not sure what it is, but then I've also heard SATA drives (which I think this Dell's HDD is) don't require to be slaved...
RECOVERY (F:) is the Dell Restore Partition: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm
(G:) Partition is your old "C"-partition. Since Windows freezes when accessing, it appears the file system is corrupted. In My Computer, right-click "G", select Tools, Check for Errors.
I've heard things like "slaving" it or something - refers to adding a 2nd hard drive via IDE (or PATA), where one drive is Master & the other is Slave. With newer computers that use SATA, there is no master/slave arrangement. Since you have a laptop, USB is the option, but the term "slaving" is still used.
The old drive is probably still good.
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If windows is crashing when you try to access the files you may want to try another OS (if what suggested above doesn't work). Try downloading and burning a copy of Ubuntu and run the live disk. You could be able to see the old and new drives and copy from one to another. It's not a sure thing this would work but it may. Just DO NOT install Ubuntu but "try" it. Good luck.
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If windows is crashing when you try to access the files you may want to try another OS (if what suggested above doesn't work). Try downloading and burning a copy of Ubuntu and run the live disk. You could be able to see the old and new drives and copy from one to another. It's not a sure thing this would work but it may. Just DO NOT install Ubuntu but "try" it. Good luck.
It will definitely work since he running a modern OS...presuming XP or higher.
Are you working on a fresh OS?