Laptop HDD, and it's recovery.

[dwessell]

HI all..

I have a Toshiba HDD 2134 HDD that I'm attempting to rescue. I have hooked it up to my desktop PC, via a IDE adapter, into the secondary IDE port..

Booting into Windows, it's not recognized.. Placing it as a slave on the Primary IDE cable, and the computer doesn't boot. I'm told that a disk cannot be found. I'm betting this is becuase there are no jumpers to set the laptop HDD to slave..

Originally, when booting the laptop, "Operating System not found" was displayed..

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks
David

 

[rvnguy]

therer should be 4 pins adjacent to the data connector.these are a,b,c,d no jumper is master jumper c&d the 2 pins virtical & closest to the connector for slave

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[dwessell]

Hry rvnguy.. Your absolutely right.. I was under the impression that they were for power... I've left it as master, and unhooked my primary HD.. BIOS is not recognizing the driver.. I'm booting with a Ubuntu Live CD.. But no HD's are detected... Any other thoughts?

Thanks
David

 

[rvnguy]

connect as slave(add jumper) to you desktop as you originally posted...should recog as slave. This is if you are just trying to get some files off...is this what you want??

As from a laptop & if XP or 2K is OS it would not boot to this drive correctly even if the OS were intact which if it were you wouldn't be doing this.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[dwessell]

Hey rvnguy.. I am just attempting to getsome files off.. The HD had Win98 on it.. It was a pretty old laptop, and would not boot at all... I will try it as a slave, and report back in a few minutes.

Thanks
David

 

[dwessell]

To verify.
Connector/Jumper
::::: A:B:
Pins go on set A?

 

[dwessell]

I'm betting that's correct, as I can not boot off the Primary.. However, BIOS does not recognize the slave HDD... Any suggestions, besides tossing it?

Thanks
David

 

[rvnguy]

Look back.....pins c & d two closest to connector

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[Freestone]

And if you are placing the laptop drive on the same cable as your boot drive, and you've set the laptop drive to slave, then ensure the jumper on your boot drive is set to master and not cable select.

 

[dwessell]

Hi Freestone.. It sure is.. I've tried both Master, and Master with Non-ATA slave..

When BIOS is attempting to detect the drive, it hangs for about 45 secs, before failing to detect.. So it's sensing something, correct?

Thanks
David

 

[stduc]

If I've read this thread correctly and please excuse me if I haven't, you are trying to connect this laptop drive via an IDE cable to the secondary IDE port on the motherboard?

If that is correct and it is the only drive on that cable then it should be connected as a master disk.

Now it seems you have already tried that arrangement and it nearly worked. If so I would suggest trying it again but making doubly sure that all the connections are good.

One more thought. Are you plugging the adapter into the IDE cable, or direct to the port? If into the IDE connector and then that into the motherboard port you may be exceeding the allowable length of IDE cables. So either get a short IDE cable, or try using the connector in the middle of the IDE cable to connect to the adapter cable.

 

[dwessell]

stduc,

Thanks for any information. This is a friends laptop, and he has pictures of his kid, that I'm trying to rescue.

As it is now, I have my HDD as the master, and the laptop HDD as a slave, on the same IDE cable. The adapter plugs directly into the IDE cable, so the only additional lenght, is the adapter, about 1/2 inch or so.

With this arrangement, BIOS cannot detect the laptop HDD.. It takes awhile, but eventually it returns no HDD found.

I tried leaving the desktop PC as primary on the main IDE cable. And then putting the latop as primary on the secondary cord.. Same result....

 

[wolluf]

dwessell - does sound like its dead, and only very expensive data recovery would have a chance. If you have access to more PCs, might be worth trying them (somebody might suggest putting drive in the fridge before trying.....)

 

[stduc]

Its the freezer actually!

See here

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1183123

and here

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1183509

Does the drive spin up? If so, does it sound normal or are then any constant clicking sounds or other worrying noises?

 

[dwessell]

I THINK it's spinning up... It's real quiet.. But I can feel some vibration on it if I lightly touch it. No weird noises though.. I"ll try the freezer tonight.. Thanks guys..

 

[OldTechGuy]

I know this may seem obvious, but it seems the obvious is what always bites me. Do you have power applied to the laptop hard drive? In the laptop machine, power is delivered via the "data" cable. I don't believe the "data" cable on the desktop provides power. You have to have some way of connecting the external power of the desktop to the laptop "data" connector. Does the adapter provied this?

Just a thought before you trash it.

 

[dwessell]

OldTechGuy..

I do.. The adapter has a little plug that hooks into PowerSupply cords.. It's in the freezer now, cross your fingers

Thanks
David