Recovering Data From HDD

[Brewed_At_Home]

My laptop died on me the other day and I was wondering if there's anyway to recover all the data on my HDD without formatting it beforehand. I thought about using my PS3 but that would require the HDD to be formatted before it can even be used with it. I remember there was some sort of cable that could be attached to the HDD and on the other side was a USB port, but I had no luck finding it. Obviously I'm not very good at this kind of stuff so can anyone please help?

[shortboy]

Try looking into enclosures for laptop HDDs

[Iconic_187]

does the drive connect via sata cable?

[Brewed_At_Home]

Isn't SATA cables used for 3.5" HDDs? I don't think that would work on a laptop HDD which is like 2.5"

I looked up laptop HDD enclosures and I think those will do the trick. But will it require the HDD to be formatted beforehand?

[afiser]

Originally Posted by Brewed_At_Home

Isn't SATA cables used for 3.5" HDDs? I don't think that would work on a laptop HDD which is like 2.5"

I looked up laptop HDD enclosures and I think those will do the trick. But will it require the HDD to be formatted beforehand?

the serial interfaces are both the same size. just the drives themselves are smaller. so a sata cable and a sata power cable would work

[Iconic_187]

Originally Posted by afiser

the serial interfaces are both the same size. just the drives themselves are smaller. so a sata cable and a sata power cable would work

well then there ya go
just hook it up to your computer and start retreiving data =]

[Brewed_At_Home]

Just removed my HDD from the laptop and its a IDE HDD. Guess I'll have to buy that external enclosure then.

Edit: Got the enclosure but there's something wrong with the HDD. It connects to my PC just fine but whenever I open My Computers, it doesnt load and just sits there. I tried another HDD just to be sure the enclosure is working and that tested out fine. Anyone know whats wrong?