My laptop died a while back. I have removed the HD and I am trying to connect it to my new laptop.

I thought it was a case of sticking it in an IDE caddy and connecting with a USB cable. Of course, because it's me I can't get this thing to work:mad:

So the HD is in it's case, it's connected to the laptop. I have a green light on the HD box. The laptop has already installed the software for the IDE caddy. The problem I have now is I can't find the drive.

I have another external HD which I just plug into USB and I find it by selecting "my computer" easy.

What am I doing wrong with this one? Is it because the old drive is XP and my new system is Visa?

My IT knowledge is very limited so be gentle:O

Most HDD's that boot up the O/S are tied to the MotherBoard/ processor, so you will not be able to boot from it.

You should however be able to see it as an external drive. Unless the HDD boot sector is badly corrupted and cannot be read to identify the drive.

What format id the HDD youre trying to read FAT32 or NTFS ( can you remeber ? ) fista is NTFS, so there may be an issue reading FAT32, although should not be.

Can you hear thr drive spinning, or feel vibration from the case you have the drive in ?. there may be power getting to the hdd but its not spining up.

A month or so ago I did exactly the same, dead motherboard on a friends laptop. Whipped the HDD out and stuck it in a caddy to retrieve the pictures she wanted rescuing. Her laptop was XP and my desktop is Vista so exactly the same situation as you.

Drive was recognised as an external HDD and I could browse the contents (Programs, Windows install folders etc) with no problem.

Could it actually be your HDD that was the problem?

Most HDD's that boot up the O/S are tied to the MotherBoard/ processor, so you will not be able to boot from it.

You should however be able to see it as an external drive. Unless the HDD boot sector is badly corrupted and cannot be read to identify the drive.

What format id the HDD youre trying to read FAT32 or NTFS ( can you remeber ? ) fista is NTFS, so there may be an issue reading FAT32, although should not be.

Can you hear thr drive spinning, or feel vibration from the case you have the drive in ?. there may be power getting to the hdd but its not spining up.

Thanks for the reply:thumbup:

I can hear the HD spinning. I suppose there's a chance it may have got damaged when the laptop went down. I had multiple issues with that one.

I don't know what format the drive is:confused: On the back of the drive is Momentus 5-4000.3 120GB made by Seagate. Was originally in a Packard Bell lappy.

I was just looking to recover some pics which I hadn't backed up:(

A month or so ago I did exactly the same, dead motherboard on a friends laptop. Whipped the HDD out and stuck it in a caddy to retrieve the pictures she wanted rescuing. Her laptop was XP and my desktop is Vista so exactly the same situation as you.

Drive was recognised as an external HDD and I could browse the contents (Programs, Windows install folders etc) with no problem.

Could it actually be your HDD that was the problem?

It could well be Dave. I'll keep playing until I get bored and then I'll get the hammer out:D

Try the freezer trick.

It may work long enough for what you need.

Try the freezer trick.

It may work long enough for what you need.

Now in a plastic bag in freezer:D

How long does it stay in for?

Long enough to be super cold, but not long enough as to have any moisture build up.

Try 30-45min.

Long enough to be super cold, but not long enough as to have any moisture build up.

Try 30-45min.

I'll give it a few more minutes then.

Report back in a little while.

No joy:(

Worth a try though. Thanks.

Is the laptop drive you've taken out of the laptop set to IDE master?

If not it usually won't be seen in the USB cage.

Is the laptop drive you've taken out of the laptop set to IDE master?

If not it usually won't be seen in the USB cage.

You Mr Cheeze are the man:thumbup::thumbup:

Done a little Google and it turns out I just needed to remove the little plastic jumper from the HD's pins. HD now set to master.

I'm now in and recovering the images I need.

Thanks for the info/help.

Where do I send the cheque?

Storage is my day job, so it's about 30 seconds to type it and I'm not going to bill for that

Seriously though, glad you've got your data back, but I'd seriously look into how you can take backups in the future. Number of times people lose data because they think the drives never die.

Storage is my day job, so it's about 30 seconds to type it and I'm not going to bill for that

Seriously though, glad you've got your data back, but I'd seriously look into how you can take backups in the future. Number of times people lose data because they think the drives never die.

I normally sling everything on to an external HD. There was just a few folders I didn't get around to doing. I can't be doing with CD/DVD back up.

This has been a lesson and I will buy another ex HD at the weekend and double back up everything. Just got to remember to keep it up to date. Might look into the online vault that BT offer too.

Thanks again for the help:thumbup: