Let’s say your laptop failed to start but you have some important files on the hard drive you would like to access. Is it possible to recover data from a failed laptop or notebook computer? Yes, it is and the process is relatively simple.
First of all, I assume that the hard drive in your failed laptop is not damaged.The laptop fails to start but the hard drive is in a good working condition.
In order to recover data you will have to access and remove the hard drive. Fortunately in most laptops the hard drive can be easily accessed through a hatch on the bottom. If the hard drive has mounting brackets installed (like in my example), it might be necessary to remove those brackets.
How to recover data from a laptop IDE hard drive.
Let’s start with an IDE hard drive also known as PATA hard drive.
On the picture below you see a regular IDE hard drive. It has two rows of pins on the front side.
The easiest way to access and recover data from an IDE hard drive would be using an external USB enclosure. Make sure to choose a USB enclusure for 2.5″ IDE hard drives.
You attach your hard drive to a USB/IDE converter and then connect it to another working computer (laptop or desktop) via USB cable.
Advantages of using external USB enclosure:
1. Easy to assemble and setup even for novice users.
2. Can be connected to a laptop or desktop computer.
Disadvantages of using external USB enclosure:
Slow data transfer rate.
If you computer supports USB 2.0, the data transfer rate will not exceed 480Mbps (I assume the enclosure also supports USB 2.0).
If your computer supports only USB 1.1, the data transfer rate will not exceed 12Mbps and it might take hours to transfer large amount of data.
The second method is for more advanced users.
You can access and remove data much faster if you use a laptop to IDE hard drive adapter (on the picture below mentioned as IDE connector).
One side of the adapter connects to the laptop hard drive. The second connects to the available IDE cable inside your PC computer.
Advantages of using Laptop to IDE hard drive adapter:
Fast data transfer rate. If you have a Ultra ATA/100 (UDMA/100) laptop hard drive, the data transfer rate will be 100MBs.
Disadvantages of using Laptop to IDE hard drive adapter:
1. Not for novice users. Requires PC disassembly and hardware configuration.
2. Can be connected only to PC computes.
On the picture below you can see how the adapter is connected to a PC computer.
How to recover data from a laptop SATA hard drive.
A SATA hard drive has a different interface. It has a data connector and power connector.
A laptop SATA hard drive also can be connected to an external USB enclosure. Make sure to choose a USB enclusure for 2.5″ SATA hard drives.
If you are using an external USB enclusure, the data transfer rate will be limited to the speed of the USB port (480Mbps or 12Mbps) even though SATA hard drives has transfer rate 150MBps.
For a faster data recovery I would suggest connecting your SATA hard drive directly to the SATA ports inside a PC computer. Fortunately, you can use same type of cables as you use for regular 3.5″ desktop hard drives.
My next post explains how to recover data from a laptop with crashed OS.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:43 am
hi-
I salvaged the hard drive from my smashed Toshiba computer, bought a 3 in 1 Drive adaptor, and have it connected to my new computer using the device. I need to extract my old data from the drive and put it on my new computer. it recognizes the drive and attempts to open it….and gets about 95% of the way there on the progress bar…but never succeeds in opening any data. what am i doing wrong??? any input would be greatly appreciated!!!
Emily
September 24th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Recovery Guy Says
Are you trying to access this hard drive in Windows? Can you see the hard drive in the disc manager?
Recovery guy,
I have tried to access the harddrive in Vista and windows. I can see it but the second i click on it, the working icon appears and won’t access anything, it just times out.
Tom
September 18th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Felicia,
What is your question? It doesn’t sound like you have a problem with the hard drive.
September 18th, 2009 at 12:30 am
the external monitor functions but there is no image on the notebook LCD panel
September 17th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Tom,
Are you trying to access this hard drive in Windows? Can you see the hard drive in the disc manager?
September 17th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I have a Toshiba mk4025gas hdd2190 f ze01 s hard drive that I have tried to use the usb to Ibd, but it won’t recognize it. I know it works from other laptop hd’s, but i really need to files off of it. I can hear it spinning up so I know it’s not the motor. I was told the PCB might be fried and to try replacing that first, my concern is does that works? or is it a waste of time?
August 25th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
petrocles,
Apparently the file structure is corrupted. You will not be able to access this drive from Windows. You have a chance to get you pictures back if you use special data recovery software, for example GetDataBack for NTFS from Runtime Software.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:33 am
i am trying to recover photos from my laptop. The laptop will not boot up Windows XP. I have a ide connector which i connected to my PC. The PC has Windows Vista installed. The hard drive does not show on my computer but i can see it on disk management but all options are greyed out except delete volume and help!
any ideas?
The hitachi hard drive does not have jumpers and so is ide master, the pc hard drive is sata. maybe that is causing a conflict. i will try and buy jumper and make ide hd slave to see if that will remedy situation
August 24th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Aries,
Can you boot in Safe Mode? Press F8 as soot as Toshiba logo appears on the screen, select Safe Mode and press Enter.
Can you boot to the desktop this way?
August 24th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Hello,
When I try to boot up my Toshiba P200, I come across the following message from the Windows Boot Manager:
=======================
Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer.
This error can be caused by upplugging a removable storage device such as an external USB drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardwae such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer.
If you continue to receive this error message, contact the hardware manufacturer.
Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occurred.
=======================
Please help!! I hope my HDD data is still intact
.
Many thanks in advance.
July 26th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Hey Guys,
I was able to recover all the pcitures of my 10 months old girl from the failed drive. With Knoppix OS booted from, I did NTFS fix and force mount commands and saw the Windows directory on the drive and copied the data to my USB thum drive!!!
Thanks for all the help. This is really a great site when it comes to recovering the lost data on troubled drives.
Mark Kang
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:08 am
Joe,
Search on eBay. I linked to the page with adapter in the post.
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Where can I purchase the exact same IDE Connector for the Laptop Hard Drive with the Power Cable & the HDD Activity Light ?
July 21st, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Hey Guys,
I booted my laptop from the Knoppix bootable CD and hooked the HD as USB drive. After recognizing the drive, the OS complained that the NTFS file system is corrupted, so I ran the “NTFS fix” command on the shell and tried to access to it. But it then asked for mounting NTFS volume. I am trying to figure out the mount command now and will try to access to it. If this does not work, I will try other methods that you guys recommended. In my opinion, I don’t think my physical disk drive is bad. I believe the BSD is caused by corrupted Window registry since the OS seems to recognize the drive and the total size of it. Anyhow, thanks for all the tips. I keep you posted what happens next.
Mark
July 20th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Hiren’s Boot CD is a very useful diagnostic CD. It has a lot of tools. I’m using this CD almost every day.
I would be very careful with that. I believe replacing it with a new controller from a similar hard drive is not enough. The new controller must have the same firmware version as the original one or there is a chance to ruin the data. Just my $0.02
July 20th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Mark,
There is no question that you can take the hard drive out and hook it up as a secondary HD in your desktop and try.
There should also be a HD diagnostic utility in the BIOS(computer setup) that you can access to test the HD.
If it were me, the next thing that I might try would be PCInspector File Recovery. to see if I could recover files(make sure that you are recovering to another HD.
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1
It is a free software.
The next step would be Ontrack EasyRecovery Pro. This is not a free software.
Not that I am recommending the following but I have also heard that the following might help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiren%27s_BootCD
If the HD indeed have hardware problem, there are a couple of things to try.
If the controller board, the circuit board has problem, you can try to swap in a circuit board of another HD of the same model to see if that works for you.
If it is a minor head crash, hook it up to inside a desktop, slightly tapping the drive while the drive start spinning to make sure that it spin up alright might help.
the next step resort to putting the HD in a zip lock back, seal it and put it in a freezer over night, try to hook it up the next day , leave it inside the bag to minimize condenzation. to see if you have any luck. I had had succed with this. It would just be enough time to copy the data off the drive.
If all these fail, you have to go with the more expensive route of Data recovery service.
I have gone through all these before.
Best of luck
July 18th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
krzys & Recovery Guy,
Hey guys, thanks for the help. I had to be out of town on a short notice in the last week, so I could not get back to your responses. I tried what krzys suggested with the disk managment tool today, but got an error message, “The Disk Check could not be performed because Windows cannot access the disk.” I am gonna try out what Recovery Guy suggested as a next step and will let you know what happens. By the way, I was wondering whether I can make my failed laptop SATA drive as a second drive on my SATA based desktop machine and boot it from there to access the corrupted laptop drive. It used to work in the past time to time with EDIE drives in this method. But I am not sure whether it will work with SATA or not.
Mark