Hard Drive Issues

Blue_XR · 22-10-2011, 11:45 PM

Recently the mother board on my pc died and there is information I need to extract from my hard drives.

Now my problem is a follows, I borrowed a computer from work so I could plug in my hard drives, however what happens when my hard drive is connected to this other computer is that a message comes up that says the computer might have been turned off incorrectly then you need to choose how you will restart it, safe mode...etc.

When I choose the mode I wish to restart it in it goes back to the same screen again.

I unplugged my 2nd drive to make sure everything worked fine and the computer worked perfectly and it did.

Is there a setting I may need to change and if so how would I go about it. I thought it would be just plug and play. When would I make the setting adjustment? Maybe I could have the plugs in the wrong order.

creative · 23-10-2011, 03:16 AM

You will need to set the jumpers to slave. A quick google of your drive model will tell you which pins to set it on.

**SSD-85** · 23-10-2011, 03:19 AM

As creative said, but depends on whether or not its an IDE or SATA drive. Either way, it will only work as a secondary drive in a different machine. So have a Primary (boot) hdd with an OS installed, and plug this hdd in as a secondary.

SATA wont require a jumper change (IDE will, instructions on drive itself), however boot parameters will need to be set in the BIOS.

K10wN · 23-10-2011, 05:04 AM

Take note of the hard drive model/serial numbers.

Boot the computer and go straight to CMOS/BIOS. In the boot parameters screen, ensure that the original hard drive (the one from work) is set as the boot hard drive. Different CMOS's have different setup screens for this but they all end with the same result. The model/serial number of the work's hard drive needs be listed as being the first hard drive, and hard drive set as first or second boot option (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM can be set as first boot).

The fact that you get to the 'safe mode' screen tells me that it has detected the hard drive that you plugged in from your failed machine and it's configured correctly with jumpers/cables. It's trying to boot to the OS from the failed machine. This results in a blue screen error (change of motherboard chipset will cause this) which due to the current stop error setting, it automatically reboots and repeats the process. The blue screen may flash so quickly you don't see it.

On some motherboards you are able to press F10 or F12 to enter a boot selection menu without needing to enter BIOS/CMOS. You can choose the correct drive to boot from here as well.

FGII-XR6 · 23-10-2011, 09:03 AM

as said above or do as i do, I have a universal USB HDD interface wit 2.5 " 3.5" IDE connectors and a SATA connector this basically turns any HDD into an external HDD which can then be hot pluged when the OS is running

Blue_XR · 23-10-2011, 11:13 AM

Thanks for your responses guys. From my internet searching yesterday I have figured out that I have an older drive so it is an IDE. I have made sure the jumpers in the back of the drives are correct. Yesterday when I was fiddling around with it I was able to come up with the boot parameters but because I was unsure what it was i escaped from it. It was an MS DOS format and there was a few headings that you could choose and go into and adjust if I am correct.

I have been reading about the jumpers in the back of the hard drive and they seem to be correctly positioned. I would assume they are because the person at the computer shop did pull some information out of the hard drives already. Problem is I had things saved all over the computer so this is why I need to open it up again. If I could get to this setting again then I might have a chance to get into my hard drives.

Now this morning I have tried everything again and on the boot page I have tried pressing f10 and f12 to see which one would work and neither of them are coming up with anything when I press it. I am using the tab button as well as pressing f10/12.

I'll have another crack at it this afternoon and see were it gets me. However, I was searching ebay for the things that au3xr6 said and I think that these will be a good idea so i can access my files when ever I need in the future, with out having to rely on my external hard drive. Plus I have to give the borrowed computer back at some stage.

creative · 23-10-2011, 01:01 PM

Don't press Ctrl. It could be any of the F buttons. :d Just get into the bios, look for a boot tab and go into that. Ensure your primary drive is set as the first boot. Then save and exit.

Blue_XR · 23-10-2011, 03:07 PM

Thanks for the help guys, I pressed f9 on start up and that allowed me to choose which drive I wanted to start the boot up from. I have managed to see my files now. I will also buy the adaptor so i can use the hard drive at a later stage if I wish.

Thanks for the help, I have learnt something about computers this weekend. I bought a Mac recently and everything is backed up on my time machine through an external hard drive, so it is very different to my old pc

Wise · 25-10-2011, 12:21 AM

If you turn it in to an external drive for backup purposes you will have a hard time getting to the info on the mac as the original drive you have will be NTFS formatted.

The mac will read it, but can be a real PITA to copy the data from. If its formatted as FAT32 I think you can only read/write to a 20GB Partition or drive.

Dave

K10wN · 25-10-2011, 02:36 AM

LOL. Apple is a fruit after all.

Blue_XR · 25-10-2011, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wise

If you turn it in to an external drive for backup purposes you will have a hard time getting to the info on the mac as the original drive you have will be NTFS formatted.

The mac will read it, but can be a real PITA to copy the data from. If its formatted as FAT32 I think you can only read/write to a 20GB Partition or drive.

Dave

Thanks for that mate, I have access to a vaio at home if need be. I think I managed to get everything I needed as I went through each file.