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Hard drive from smashed laptop
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Hi, our laptop was open on the sofa edge and got knocked off and stood on. We are going to buy a new one but want to save pictures from the smashed laptop. Don't want to take it to a shop as pictures of us on it from meets. Can anyone help or advise |
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"Hi, our laptop was open on the sofa edge and got knocked off and stood on. We are going to buy a new one but want to save pictures from the smashed laptop. Don't want to take it to a shop as pictures of us on it from meets. Can anyone help or advise"
If the hard drive itself is not physically damaged you can buy a cradle it slots into that connects to another machine by USB. |
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If it is the screen that’s broken and the laptop starts up, just plug an external monitor in then copy the files.
If it is a Windows machine the disk may be encrypted using hardware built into the computer so may not be readable if removed. |
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By *glyBettyTV/TS 3 days ago
About 3 feet away from the fence |
"Hi, our laptop was open on the sofa edge and got knocked off and stood on. We are going to buy a new one but want to save pictures from the smashed laptop. Don't want to take it to a shop as pictures of us on it from meets. Can anyone help or advise
If the hard drive itself is not physically damaged you can buy a cradle it slots into that connects to another machine by USB."
^This. You can get them dead cheap as well. Most I see on Amazon are under £10.
You may need to do a bit of googling of your laptop model to find out which hard drive type/connector you have, so that you buy the right adapter. Chances are you'll have a SATA connector as most laptop motherboards do, but Google it first. |
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By *bi HaiveMan 3 days ago
Forum Mod Cheeseville, Somerset |
"If it is the screen that’s broken and the laptop starts up, just plug an external monitor in then copy the files.
If it is a Windows machine the disk may be encrypted using hardware built into the computer so may not be readable if removed."
This. 
If it's got an HDMI port just plug it into your TV and hit the relevant F button to change the display output.
Then plug in a USB stick and transfer the files you want to that.
You can buy the cradle and remove the hard drive later. I have about 6 old laptop hard drives that I removed, formatted and just use for photo storage now rather than leaving in dead laptops and recycling. |
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It's likely that your laptop will have a 2.5" HDD (or SSD) drive. Echoing the advice above you need to buy a relatively cheap "USB 3.0 to SATA adapter", or similar.
The SATA end of the adapter is a wide connecter comprised of 22 hidden pins.
In essence it becomes a glorified USB stick attached to a working Windows PC/Laptop. It's really quite simple. 🩶 |
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"It's likely that your laptop will have a 2.5" HDD (or SSD) drive. Echoing the advice above you need to buy a relatively cheap "USB 3.0 to SATA adapter", or similar.
The SATA end of the adapter is a wide connecter comprised of 22 hidden pins.
In essence it becomes a glorified USB stick attached to a working Windows PC/Laptop. It's really quite simple. 🩶"
This. I just use a simple SATA to USB adapter to connect drives to my laptop and mount them for access. Quick, cheap and simple. Cable was about a fiver |
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"Not sending it away anywhere. Was hoping someone local could do it and put the memory onto a new laptop. That way I can be there to know images aren't being copied"
It's dead easy to do, I'd happily do it for you if I was closer.
If the laptop still turns on, you might be able to plug it into your TV with a HDMI cable & plug a USB keyboard in. Then you can access it to copy the files.
Cal |
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"Hi, our laptop was open on the sofa edge and got knocked off and stood on. We are going to buy a new one but want to save pictures from the smashed laptop. Don't want to take it to a shop as pictures of us on it from meets. Can anyone help or advise"
You can get a new screen put in it .. |
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You just need to know if it's connection is sata or M2. Theres adapters, cradles you can grab for pennies letting you use a usb connection to the new pc. It's not rocket appliances get one off Amazon and save yourself some money. |
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Try using the external monitor option, that way you can steer through the security and enter your login details and extract the files to a USB - everyone suggesting just ‘browsing’ the hard drive via a cradle / connecting lead clearly doesn’t have a clue… |
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"Try using the external monitor option, that way you can steer through the security and enter your login details and extract the files to a USB - everyone suggesting just ‘browsing’ the hard drive via a cradle / connecting lead clearly doesn’t have a clue…"
I think they do. If thee drive 8s operational then taking itnout, use a cradle and it's an external drive of large capacity and more reliable than a USB.
2 birds 1 stone and drive can be used for backups and much more storage space |
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"Try using the external monitor option, that way you can steer through the security and enter your login details and extract the files to a USB - everyone suggesting just ‘browsing’ the hard drive via a cradle / connecting lead clearly doesn’t have a clue…"
That very much depends on the age/setup of the laptop. If it's not very new, then it's unlikely to be encrypted.
Cal |
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"Try using the external monitor option, that way you can steer through the security and enter your login details and extract the files to a USB - everyone suggesting just ‘browsing’ the hard drive via a cradle / connecting lead clearly doesn’t have a clue…
That very much depends on the age/setup of the laptop. If it's not very new, then it's unlikely to be encrypted.
Cal"
It’s not the age of the hardware, any currently supported windows OS won’t let you just plug in a hard drive and access personal folders! |
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