Accessing HDD

bushmins

bushmins

bushmins

Soldato
Joined
30 Aug 2006
Posts
4,776
Im using my new desktop to try and get the info off my old HDD. Is there any easy way to connect it to my motherboard to get it to read as a spare drive? Ive tried using my laptop HDD external box header but it seems a usb doesnt have the power to get an desktop HDD running.
Its a SATA drive. I have tried plugging it into the power and sata when windows is running but it does not show up on available drives. I have also tried restarting the computer the the HDD plugged in, this didnt work it seems to want to boot off of that HDD.

Im fairly sure the drive works i just had problems booting win 7 up with it. Im sure if i can access it as a seperate drive i will be able to get the info off that i need.
 
HAve you checked jumper settings on the back of the drive/ configuration within BIOS that it's a slave drive and not the master.

Provided it's not completely dead you might be able to get into windows on your proper primary drive and see it as another drive.
 
Azen said:
HAve you checked jumper settings on the back of the drive/ configuration within BIOS that it's a slave drive and not the master.

Provided it's not completely dead you might be able to get into windows on your proper primary drive and see it as another drive.
Click to expand...

That could be the problem. Im not sure what the jumper should go on on a sata drive. IDE's used to have it written on the label. There are currently no jumpers on the drive all 4 pins are empty. Do you know which ones to connect?

Ive tried to plug it in when in windows on my working drive, it did not show up.
 
bushmins said:
Its a SATA drive. I have tried plugging it into the power and sata when windows is running but it does not show up on available drives. I have also tried restarting the computer the the HDD plugged in, this didnt work it seems to want to boot off of that HDD.
Click to expand...

Fairly sure the SATA isn't plug and play!! You may have fried your drive doing this, all I ever do is take the cables from the CD/DVD drive and connect to that never failed.

You could always get a 3.5" caddy, that way there's a seperate power lead to it as only 2.5" draw the power from USB.
 
check to see if it is detecting in device manager it might just need a letter allocating if you go to control panel aministitive tools (sorry about spelling) and check in there to see if it is active and also add a letter to it
 
Sata is hot swapable, i wouldn't advise it on a cheap PSU / Motherboard combo but its certainly possible :)

Does the drive spin up?
And is it listed in the lower pane of DiskManagement?
Start> Run > diskmgmt.msc
 
I cant even get the desktop to get into bios when the old hard drive is connected (using the new hard drive as a master). It might not working in my favor that its the same model as the main one.
It does spin up, i guess i could try plugging it in when windows is already up again and try some of the above. I tried pluggin it in when bios is up, but it didnt reconise it.
 
Last edited:
After playing a bit more i got into win 7 with the duff hdd plugged using the good one for the operating system. Win 7 didnt even seem to know it was connected. I looked at the diskmanagment thing and the hardware monitor, nothing registered that it was connected.
Fortunatally i keep backups of most stuff, just failed to back up a couple of files that i could do with.

Nothing much i can do with it now apart from take it apart and unleash hard and relentless anger unto it with a hammer. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom