[Hidden-tech] hard drive issue

[Robert Heller]

At Mon, 19 Jan 2015 17:41:29 -0500 Mark Kurber <mkurber22 at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Hi folks,
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> I have a 6 year old Dell running Windows XP Pro.  I'm not able to get past
> the start-up screen (Dell logo, press F2 or F12 and nothing happens).  I
> have stuff on that hard drive I need.  I've built computers in the past so
> I've played around to a degree inside the guts of various machines.  My
> question: can I unplug that hard drive and somehow house it in an external
> box, or the like, then access the files I need through a USB cable
> connection?  Is there a simple solution I'm missing or, in fact, do I have
> a more serious dilemma to address?

Yes, there are IDE (I assume it is an IDE drive) to USB adapter devices /
enclosures available (there are also SATA to USB adapters as well). This is a
simple solution, BUT:

Given that the drive is *6 years* old, it could be that the disk is totally
hosed and is not able to spin up anymore. In which case, the data is probably
gone. If the bearing grease has siezed up, the data is probably not going to
be recoverable.  So it is likely you really have a more serious dilemma to 
address.

(There was a thread on the usenet group 'comp.os.linux.misc' about recovering 
data from a drive that was reporting I/O errors.  The concensus is that once 
the drive starts to go, recovering data might become impossible.).

The 'moral' of the story: you shoulda have made backups on other media (and 
then made backups of the backups...).


> 
> Thanks, in advance.  I'm a quasi-geek at best.
> 
> Best regards, *Mark H. Kurber*
> c: 413-441-5101
> e: mkurber22 at gmail.com
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