Trying to recover dead laptop data

KTreu42

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Apr 13, 2012
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Hey all,

My old laptop hasn't worked for awhile - lost the power cord, tried a different one, busted the power intake on the laptop... you know. Anyway trying to recover that data now, and I need some pointers.

The laptop drive is Samsung HM500JI. I was planning to connect it to my desktop PC, and I attached a spare SATA cable to the motherboard but I need power. The drive has 4 prongs for a very small power cord, maybe 1cm wide, and I'm not sure what cord I would need for that.

So first off: will this method work fine, and if so, what type of cord do I need; second, if this method is a bad idea what's my best bet?

Thanks!
 
Solution
That by the look of it is a standard sata drive and the connectors will be the same as for a desktop. The four pins at the end aren't a power connector, the power connector is the other side of the sata connector (a similar design to the sata connector but wider).

You could probably easily connect it to your motherboard as you are trying to do. An even easier option is just to pop onto Amazon or Ebay and order a 2.5" sata caddy. You can just pop your drive in one of those and use it as a portable USB hard drive. The caddies are very cheap.

rhysiam

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Mar 24, 2013
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It'll be SATA power cable, you should have some from your power supply. You could borrow one from a CD/DVD drive or another unused HDD?

Otherwise, buy a cheap molex to SATA power adapter and that'll work fine.
 

rhysiam

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Mar 24, 2013
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Your plan is a good one. You should be able to your usual desktop Windows. If the drive doesn't appear in File Explorer, use Disk Management to allocate a drive letter and, assuming the HDD itself isn't damaged/corrupted or encrypted, you should be fine to copy off any data you need.
 

womble

Distinguished
Mar 10, 2006
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That by the look of it is a standard sata drive and the connectors will be the same as for a desktop. The four pins at the end aren't a power connector, the power connector is the other side of the sata connector (a similar design to the sata connector but wider).

You could probably easily connect it to your motherboard as you are trying to do. An even easier option is just to pop onto Amazon or Ebay and order a 2.5" sata caddy. You can just pop your drive in one of those and use it as a portable USB hard drive. The caddies are very cheap.
 
Solution

KTreu42

Honorable
Apr 13, 2012
14
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10,560
Ah, right you are womble! Not sure why I expected the other part to be the power. I had a spare sata power cable in the case.

Booting up......

PC detected drive and is attempting to install driver software.....

And success! Drive appears and files look to be intact. Thanks to all of you, you're the best. Appreciate the quick responses!

Till next time :)