Hard Drive Pieces

[Pochemuchka]

Hi,

This is my first post and let me openly state I am not a techie as much as I wish that was different.  Nonetheless, I need some information and I hope that you can understand what I am trying to explain.

Two weeks ago, my old clunker of a home PC finally bit the dust.  After talking with some IT folks, I now know that it was simply a power surge issue and could be easily replaced.  I am an assoc. professor and I kept old course syllabi on there.  I am a bit of a digital packrat so I'm sure I had some useful files on that old computer that had served me so well.

When it first happened, I wanted to have it fixed but as I already stated had I known then what I know now....[sigh]  Anyways, my husband suggested that we use the services of a gentleman that lived in his parents' apartment building.  Said gentleman previously gave my husband a business card that stated this person in question was a qualified computer technician.  Further, this gentleman was "down on his luck" so to say and could use the money so I said, "sure, why not."  Talk about tweedle dee and tweedle dum leading the blind into a ravine...

The light at the back of the computer was flashing on a steady rhythmic pace and the gentleman said he attempted all things to prove that the battery on the computer was kaput.  In the end, he said the motherboard was fried but that he could save the files on my hard drive.  I thought, "Wonderful, all I really want are my files any way!"

This is where the problem lies.  Please bear with me as I try to explain what he handed me.  He told me that "it" was the hard drive and I should have it installed into a new desktop as a slave drive.  All he handed me was something that looked like a cross between an old photo negative and a circuit board.  It is definitely not a whole hard drive but rather a part from inside it I guess?  There is a sticker with a serial number on it.  If anything, it looks like a real fancy black measuring ruler.     Does this description help at all?  Can this piece be named?

Does such a piece have any data?

With this "piece" out of the larger hard drive, is the hard drive totaled and now, I will not have these old files again?

I'm sorry for such a lack of proper technical terms and such a sloppy description.

[Geek-9pm]

Volunteers here want to help you.
From your post, I will assume two or  things.
1. Your computer is a laptop and it suffered fatal damage.
2. You friend recommends you get a good  desktop computer, which is easier to maintain. Refurbished desktops PCs  are cheap come with a warranty. 
3. Your friend gave you adapter for using a laptop drive on a desktop PC.


Does it look like that? 
 

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

Can you give the make and model of the old computer ? Also you can post pictures of what part you have using the attachments and options, option below.
It's possible that it is the complete drive here is a picture of 1 type of hard drive   http://static.myce.com/images_posts/2012/12/myce-msata-lite-on.jpg
If it is like that please don't touch the board without correct anti static equipment.

[nomkarl782]

Seems, the system is damaged, if any important data was in the old system, get it recovered and buy a new pc

[Geek-9pm]

This link has images of older hard drives and cables.
 (And some related things.)   
Older Hard Drives and Cables

[BC_Programmer]

The light at the back of the computer was flashing on a steady rhythmic pace and the gentleman said he attempted all things to prove that the battery on the computer was kaput.  In the end, he said the motherboard was fried but that he could save the files on my hard drive.

The cynic in me says he was lying. Even if the motherboard was "fried"- why did he get to keep it and the rest of the system?

All he handed me was something that looked like a cross between an old photo negative and a circuit board.  It is definitely not a whole hard drive but rather a part from inside it I guess?  There is a sticker with a serial number on it.  If anything, it looks like a real fancy black measuring ruler.     Does this description help at all?  Can this piece be named?

Did he only give you the 'hard disk' or did he give you back the entire computer? If he didn't give you back the rest of the computer, ask for it back. The cynic in me makes me think he is trying to steal it and get paid for the privilege. Even if it doesn't work or has failed components, that doesn't suddenly make it his.

Does such a piece have any data?

Hard to say. If it IS a hard drive(Geek has some pictures of such, so if it looks like one of those it is) you can plug it into another system and it will appear as another disk drive and you can copy files from it.

With this "piece" out of the larger hard drive, is the hard drive totaled and now, I will not have these old files again?

Is there perhaps some confusion about terms? A Hard drive is fairly small. If you are relating to the entire Computer tower as the "Hard drive" that is erroneous- it is only a component in the system.

[camerongray]

Did he only give you the 'hard disk' or did he give you back the entire computer? If he didn't give you back the rest of the computer, ask for it back. The cynic in me makes me think he is trying to steal it and get paid for the privilege. Even if it doesn't work or has failed components, that doesn't suddenly make it his.

This bears repeating, if he did not give you back everything that you gave him, demand that he returns it.  Even if it is broken as he says, it still gives him no right to keep it.  I have seen many people keep computers claiming they were "beyond repair" and effectively stealing the rest of the working parts out of it.  Any reputable computer repair person should give you everything you gave them back, even offering you the faulty components.

[Pochemuchka]

Hi,

Thanks for the answers.  I really appreciate them and I did learn something.

The mystery has been solved.  What "Mr. Repairman" handed me had nothing to do with the hard drive at all.  Not even a component of it.  It's a simple ol' stick of RAM.  That's it, that's all.

I may not know the innards of a computer well but I sure can listen and pay attention.  I don't get instructions mixed up.  He definitely told me it was the hard drive and that I should put it into a new desktop as a slave drive.  I knew something was "fishy" so to say because it looked nothing like pictures of hard drives.  At that point I thought maybe it was an internal part to a hard drive but nope, it is just a stick of RAM.

The so-called "repairman" either knowingly pulled the wool over my eyes [probably] or he doesn't know squat about computers himself.  If this is the case, he's off scamming people with his business cards.  As well, if he knowingly lied about "what part" he handed me, that's unethical too.  I am partly to blame for being so computer illiterate but at least I learned from it.

Luckily, we still have the desktop but it is in pieces.  The repairman dissected it but that's all.  I can assume the proper hard drive is still in there.

[sigh]

Thanks again and I guess you must be laughing at such a rudimentary error!  I shall stick around and learn so much from this place. 

[BC_Programmer]

I guess you must be laughing at such a rudimentary error! 

Not at all. It's not like I or anybody else for that matter was born knowing different computer components. Really it rather makes me angry that somebody would do something like this, but I suppose scammers are everywhere. On the bright side, I suppose he might not be a scammer, he might just be incredibly incompetent. I'm not sure which is worse.

Luckily, we still have the desktop but it is in pieces.  The repairman dissected it but that's all.  I can assume the proper hard drive is still in there.

If you have the hard drive you should be able to connect it to another computer to retrieve your files and information from it. It's reasonably straightforward to do this yourself, or you could try your luck with another spin of the computer repairman wheel (heh).

When it comes to hard drives you should see something similar to what is shown in the image search Geek linked. Basically it will be a fairly small metal box. Depending on how old your computer is there can be two types of Hard disk, in terms of how they are connected. The type in the image is a IDE drive- these are plugged in with a flat ribbon cable which would connect to the motherboard, and have a power connector (known as a "Molex" connector) to power the drive. Slaving one of these drives onto an existing system is a tiny bit more complicated than with a "newer-style" drive. These are SATA drives and they work essentially the same (and have the same appearance), but they use much smaller connectors.

The best approach in my opinion is to get an enclosure. these come in both varieties for connecting IDE and SATA varieties (the one linked claims to work for both). Basically you install the drive inside the enclosure, then you can plug it into your computer (via a USB connection) and then use it as an external hard drive. They are great for tasks like this because you don't need to mess about with the insides of another computer and risk messing it up without knowing what you did or how to fix it.

[Geek-9pm]

Computer repair scams are not just from a few crooks.
It is much too widespread.
Here is a you tube video from 2012. Worth watching.
CBS 5 Computer Repair Scam Investigations____ _____ PC repair scam
(Name of company removed.)

Consumer fraud is bigger than what one might think.