Hard Drive Help!

Producerkidd

Solid State Member
Messages
15
one day i turn my HP on and get stuck at the blue invent screen. it was like this for months. i tested every possibility, finally got a new hard drive, put windows on it, and no problem, the machine booted right up.. now my problem is.. how do i get my data off of the other hard drive? if i have it hooked up to the pc... the pc wont start!!!! i have an external hard drive.. but how would i connect the two?

Thanks.
 
Hi,
This method is the most simple and for many people it is also the solution they need. Simply purchase an external hard drive case that allows you to plug your hard drive into a computer with a standard USB cable. Remove the crashed hard drive from your computer and carefully insert it into the external case (make sure you ground yourself before touching it), then plug it into a different system and try to open the drive. There's a good chance you'll be able to navigate into your documents and other folders and copy them onto a different hard drive.
Thanks
 
This is the simplest and least expensive method to retrieve data off the old drive. Connecting the old drive depends on whether it is IDE or sata, and you should also make sure you ground yourself by touching the case any time you work inside the case. Open the case and insert the drive in a vacant drive bay.

If the drive is IDE, make sure the jumpers on the old drive are set to cable select and attach the ribbon from the old drive to the secondary drive connection. Connect the drive to the power supply using an unused power plug. (if one is not available get a Y connector from the computer store for a couple of dollars). Boot up and the OS should recognize the new drive. See if you can navigate to the files you need to transfer. Hopefully the blue screen problem was caused by the OS and the drive is still functional.

For a sata drive, connect the drive to the sata connection using a sata cable. You also have to connect the drive to the power supply, and the plugs are different than the ones for IDE drives. You also might have to enable the sata drive in the BIOS. Boot up and navigate to the files.

If the drive is working OK, you can reformat it after you retrieve all the files you need and use it as additional storage.
 
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