Backing Up a Hard Drive

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:02 pm

Long story short, stuff fell on a friends laptop and I was trying to find a way pull out the hd and try to find a way to back it up. What possible ways if any are there? The laptop is a Dell Studio XPS, only a few months old. Is there anyway I could swap out my HD in my Dell XPS which is a about a year old and put in her HD by chance? Back up the files and swap out again?

Thanks for any responses.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:51 pm

Is the machine bootable and you're just wanting to back it up "in case the drive dies soon?"

Do you want to image it? Or just backup the persons important data?

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:23 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Is the machine bootable and you're just wanting to back it up "in case the drive dies soon?"

Do you want to image it? Or just backup the persons important data?

Sorry Cat, forgot to mention that. The laptop is NOT bootable. It's dead. Some sort of liquid got spilled on it. That is about all I know. Guess Im not even sure the HD is in working order. I figure it should be. Mine and her lap top are comparable....I hope to just switch and see perhaps.

Just want to backup her personal files, her kids photo's, things of that nature. She was told it would cost $100 to get the files backed up. Wanted to save her the money....(spend it on me instead,

lol)

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:28 pm

Hard to say if the drive went tits up or not....I'll wager more than likely the motherboard got doused and shorted out. If you can take the drive and slave it to another computer, if the drive is still functional, you should be able to browse it and copy the stuff you want to get.

Since it's a SATA drive, you can even slave it to a tower system at home. Or if you have an external USB drive for your identicle laptop...swap drives..boot into safe mode...copy data off the drive (safe mode to ditch WPA again)

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:04 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Hard to say if the drive went tits up or not....I'll wager more than likely the motherboard got doused and shorted out. If you can take the drive and slave it to another computer, if the drive is still functional, you should be able to browse it and copy the stuff you want to get.

Since it's a SATA drive, you can even slave it to a tower system at home. Or if you have an external USB drive for your identicle laptop...swap drives..boot into safe mode...copy data off the drive (safe mode to ditch WPA again)

Thank you Cat. Might go with the second part. At least see how that works.

Yeah, I figured the HD should be ok. More than likely it is the motherboard that is a dead ship so to speak.

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 8:47 pm

Took out the HD from her lap top and the HD was a little big to just slip in. I did not want to completely take my lap top apart, so I just opened up my desk top and disconnected my secondary HD and rebooted in safe mode. Very easy and now her important photo's and files are backed up on an external HD and her lap top is on it's way to Dell.

Thanks Cat!

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:32 pm

sup stranger!! ya should come on vent with solsun and I and get Buzz too!

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:55 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote: (safe mode to ditch WPA again)

What is WPA?

24giovanni · Post by **24giovanni** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:21 pm

CableDude wrote:What is WPA?

Wi-Fi Protected Access I think.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:40 am

CableDude wrote:What is WPA?

Windows Product Activation..if slaving a drive into another computer temporarily to boot up to get something..with intents of putting back in previous hardware, no need to kick off the snowball of WPA because of new hardware being seen.

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:39 am

Sava700 wrote:sup stranger!! ya should come on vent with solsun and I and get Buzz too!

Buttman!! I need to that is for sure. You know, I have not seen or talked with BuZz in months! With my current work hours, it has been really hard for me just to get online to do any thing but surf the net, read up on a few sites, stuff like that.

Kinda still play WoW, but only from time to time. Haven't been able to play much actually. Easy asked if I was going to get the latest BF game a few weeks ago. Goes back to if I have the time, hehe. When Im on, I'll hang with the old gang still. Crabby, IRS, Snuf and a few others.

Good news is I will be offered a new position at work which will allow me to work M-F, 7am - 4pm. Might be a few weeks a way, but I can't wait!!

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:36 am

Illini25 wrote:Buttman!! I need to that is for sure. You know, I have not seen or talked with BuZz in months! With my current work hours, it has been really hard for me just to get online to do any thing but surf the net, read up on a few sites, stuff like that.

Kinda still play WoW, but only from time to time. Haven't been able to play much actually. Easy asked if I was going to get the latest BF game a few weeks ago. Goes back to if I have the time, hehe. When Im on, I'll hang with the old gang still. Crabby, IRS, Snuf and a few others.

Good news is I will be offered a new position at work which will allow me to work M-F, 7am - 4pm. Might be a few weeks a way, but I can't wait!!

I'll send you a PM of the vent info

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Sat Jan 16, 2010 8:11 pm

Sava700 wrote:I'll send you a PM of the vent info

Received and sent one back.