external hd

[BlaneckW]

Hey, if any of you might be experts on the subject, I wanted an opinion on the likelihood of my transferring an external hard drive into my desktop to get it to work.  I accidentally yanked the data cord out, and the light no longer turns on except momentarily when plugging it into a new comptuer, nor the unit make any noise or clicking after the initial power on sound and power-off sound. 

This seems very strange to me; the unit should be undamaged.  It was only the data cord yanked out, both it and the power cord work on another external hd.  It stands to reason that it should still work as is.

[Geek-9pm]

The normal way for a HDD to power down is to remove power first  Suddenly removing g the data cable can have unpredictable results.
Without knowing what model of interface device you have, it is hard to say what might have happened. Itr is possible that only the interface was damaged.
This is a reference about how to use a generic external  interface device fora HDD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS-xTR7Puu8

You can buy a replacement interface for mcsh less that the cost of a replacement  HDD.

The above image is from Amazon. The thing is less that $10 plus shipping. The quality and performance may vary. The gadgets are handy for a panic, but not recommended as a permanent solution.

EDIT: Be careful with the molex DC  connector. It is NOT a hot swap thing. Us only the AC cord to turn power on and off.

[BlaneckW]

Thank you, I'll try to have a look at the material in the next few days.  You are probably right about it just being the interface - the cord seems to be loose, and the pins slanted in one direction.  The behavior I described seems to be true of my other Western Digital hard drive not plugged into the computer also, so it isn't indicative of anything other than data transfer failure.

If anyone else wants to comment on the first question, feel free, but I have another question.  I have an old, dead, NV55SO5U laptop.  I assume I can't fix it but I'd like to get the hard drive out.  Having never done this before, once I manage to get the screws out (which is itself a problem), is there anything I should know about the hard drive removal?

[BlaneckW]

I also have an old computer I'd like to upgrade.  The motherboard manufacturer says it will support a maximum of 8GB DDR2 ram.  Can a utility to be recommended to determine if this is accurate?

[patio]

Crucial.com has an online scanner...

[BlaneckW]

Using external interface, do you think I could boot from and "log into" a windows7/OS laptop drive from another laptop of the same model?  Family happens to have another laptop of the same model.

[DaveLembke]

You should be able to boot the other computer and then join this drive after that other computer is booted and it will mount as an external. You will see a number of partitions on the drive if its healthy and this other system will associate a drive letter for each partition so you may find 3 letters associated with that external setup. You then should have access to your data unless you have to take ownership due to security settings. If you run into ownership issue post back here and one of us will assist further.

[patio]

Using external interface, do you think I could boot from and "log into" a windows7/OS laptop drive from another laptop of the same model?  Family happens to have another laptop of the same model.

  The Win7 drive will not boot if connected externally...
Allan's method above will work to access the HDD and the data from another working PC.