Getting pics off old, dead PC....

[BALDNAZI]

I have a Dell desktop at home that died a long time ago.It turns on but it will not go further then the first black dos screen that pops up.No cursor,its just dead.I have alot of pics and videos on there that I would like to somehow salvage, put on a disk and be able to see them on my Mac.

Who should I go see in order to do this? I have alot of memories on that pc and I hope its still salvageable.

 

[VanR__]

An ATAPI to USB adapter

Looks like this
http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adapt.php

 

[Kaiser]

Take the drive out and just plug it into your new PC. It will auto configure because Dell's are set to cable select on IDE channels. If you do not have an extra cable or the new PC doesn't have a slave connector on it's cable, just unloug your CDRom (assuming it is not SATA) temporarily and plug in the old hard drive. Dont forget the power connector. Any problems let me know.

 

[BALDNAZI]

Thanks guys

I will take that bitch apart and do the deed.....

 

[LouMessina]

Did You Solve Your Problem?

I have a similar issue with a Dell Dimension 8100. I believe the monitor died. Hence, I can't access or back-up the hard drive, which includes thousands of competition photos going back to the 90's.

I now have an Alienware notebook. Alienware told me I can't connect the Dell PC to my laptop & transfer files as though it was an external drive because I would not be able to see the contents of the Dell hard drive on my monitor. I would have to bring it to a repair shop to get the entire hard drive copied.

I'm about to do this, but the price is hefty because they charge per gb. Since they copy everything, they would copy the OS, Microsoft programs, Adobe programs, etc.

Any advice would be appreciated. However, go easy on the terminology. I know what a USB connection is, but when I saw these comments, I went brain-dead:

• "ATAPI;"
• "Take the drive out and just plug it into your new PC. It will auto configure because Dell's are set to cable select on IDE channels" (this one made me wonder if I ever really went to school!);
• "SATA."

The only comment I understood in this thread was:

I will take that bitch apart and do the deed.....

 

[Kaiser]

I have a similar issue with a Dell Dimension 8100. I believe the monitor died. Hence, I can't access or back-up the hard drive, which includes thousands of competition photos going back to the 90's.

I now have an Alienware notebook. Alienware told me I can't connect the Dell PC to my laptop & transfer files as though it was an external drive because I would not be able to see the contents of the Dell hard drive on my monitor. I would have to bring it to a repair shop to get the entire hard drive copied.

I'm about to do this, but the price is hefty because they charge per gb. Since they copy everything, they would copy the OS, Microsoft programs, Adobe programs, etc.

Any advice would be appreciated. However, go easy on the terminology. I know what a USB connection is, but when I saw these comments, I went brain-dead:

• "ATAPI;"
• "Take the drive out and just plug it into your new PC. It will auto configure because Dell's are set to cable select on IDE channels" (this one made me wonder if I ever really went to school!);
• "SATA."

The only comment I understood in this thread was:

I dont understand. Why not just use another monitor? If your video card mwent bad, replace the video card. At least you'll have a spare PC. I honestly do not understand the dilema.

 

[LouMessina]

I dont understand. Why not just use another monitor? If your video card mwent bad, replace the video card. At least you'll have a spare PC. I honestly do not understand the dilema.

I should have also mentioned the PC is going on 8 years old. It occasionally shut down before completing start-up.

I began to back-up files, when the monitor stopped turning on when started. It stayed black and displayed a sleep-mode light. This occurred even though I could hear the PC completing it's boot-up. Hence, I'm only interested in copying the files.

I'm pretty much resigned to having to bring the hard drive to a shop to copy it, even though I was quoted a price of several hundred dollars. The above posts about hooking up a cable & transferring files sounded like an option I should ask about.

The more I think about it, I believe it's best to bring the hard drive to a shop & let them sweat it.

 

[Kaiser]

I should have also mentioned the PC is going on 8 years old. It occasionally shut down before completing start-up.

I began to back-up files, when the monitor stopped turning on when started. It stayed black and displayed a sleep-mode light. This occurred even though I could hear the PC completing it's boot-up. Hence, I'm only interested in copying the files.

I'm pretty much resigned to having to bring the hard drive to a shop to copy it, even though I was quoted a price of several hundred dollars. The above posts about hooking up a cable & transferring files sounded like an option I should ask about.

The more I think about it, I believe it's best to bring the hard drive to a shop & let them sweat it.

It's so simple to do yourself if you juts buy a USB external drive case. You'll also be able to use that drive as a backup drive later if you want. But it's your decision.

 

[VanR__]

The above posts about hooking up a cable & transferring files sounded like an option I should ask about.

You get a ATAPI to USB adapter like I posted above.

Get the old hard drive out.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/r_hard.htm

Hook the old hard drive to the 40 pin side of the adapter.

Plug the power transformer to the 4 pin port on the hard drive.

Plug the usb plug into the new PC

The drive will plug and play.

A new drive will appear in My Computer.

Copy files to the new PC directory.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I should have also mentioned the PC is going on 8 years old. It occasionally shut down before completing start-up.

I began to back-up files, when the monitor stopped turning on when started. It stayed black and displayed a sleep-mode light. This occurred even though I could hear the PC completing it's boot-up. Hence, I'm only interested in copying the files.

I'm pretty much resigned to having to bring the hard drive to a shop to copy it, even though I was quoted a price of several hundred dollars. The above posts about hooking up a cable & transferring files sounded like an option I should ask about.

The more I think about it, I believe it's best to bring the hard drive to a shop & let them sweat it.

They quoted you several hundred dollars? I'm in the wrong business! Have you shopped around, because that seems REALLY expensive to get some data off of a functioning drive. If you weren't on the other side of the country I'd do it for you for some dbol . But Kaiser's advice about the external case in spot on. Same with VanR's. It's literally insert the plug into the slot and you're good to go. Ignore the terms like "ATAPI" and "IDE". They're just technical identifiers. Computers are designed so it's virtually impossible to insert the cables somewhere they're not supposed to be. And you can get them pretty cheap from any place like CompUSA or I think Best Buy has them too. I'd say try it first on your own. You won't break it any more than it already is, and then if you still need to you can take it in to a shop.

 

[BALDNAZI]

Did not work

I bought a USB enclosure for my hard drive. I pulled my pc apart and disconnected the hard drive, plugged it into the enclosure, plugged into my USB and powered it up. I hear the drive spinning in the enclosure so I know its working but it is not showing up as a driver at all on my Mac. What the fuck? Mac should have no problem picking up the hard drive, what gives?

I hear a clicking sound when I first power up the enclosure, which is the same sound my PC was making when it died. After the clicking stops, I just hear the drive spinning normaly. Could it be a defective hard drive?

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I bought a USB enclosure for my hard drive. I pulled my pc apart and disconnected the hard drive, plugged it into the enclosure, plugged into my USB and powered it up. I hear the drive spinning in the enclosure so I know its working but it is not showing up as a driver at all on my Mac. What the fuck? Mac should have no problem picking up the hard drive, what gives?

I hear a clicking sound when I first power up the enclosure, which is the same sound my PC was making when it died. After the clicking stops, I just hear the drive spinning normaly. Could it be a defective hard drive?

You're right, it should just read the drive. The noise it's making and the fact that it did the same thing in your pc makes me think it's damaged or defective. I don't know if a shop can do anything about that, though. That's beyond my area of expertise.

 

[Kaiser]

I bought a USB enclosure for my hard drive. I pulled my pc apart and disconnected the hard drive, plugged it into the enclosure, plugged into my USB and powered it up. I hear the drive spinning in the enclosure so I know its working but it is not showing up as a driver at all on my Mac. What the fuck? Mac should have no problem picking up the hard drive, what gives?

I hear a clicking sound when I first power up the enclosure, which is the same sound my PC was making when it died. After the clicking stops, I just hear the drive spinning normaly. Could it be a defective hard drive?

Your problem is that you are probably trying to read an NTFS partition which is native Windows NT with a MAC. I dont think MAC has the capaility to use an NTFS partition yet, but someone else could fill you in on that. You would probably work out fine if you plugged it into a Windows box and copied the stuff to a FAT formatted partition jump/thumb drive or easier yet, buring it to CD then you do not have to worry about the partition format type. PM me if you get frustrated.

 

[sup]

Your problem is that you are probably trying to read an NTFS partition which is native Windows NT with a MAC. I dont think MAC has the capaility to use an NTFS partition yet,

That is correct, Mac cannot read NTFS. but that is only problem 1

the bigger concern is the clicky noise. I wouldn't bet against a fried HD. Here at work I do some forensic stuff using pro software, and I've run into a few dell hd's that even EnCase can't recover data from. We had to mail the HD to a specialist.

 

[Kaiser]

Yes but he'll never know if the HD is bad unless he tries. I didn't go back through the whole thread but I dont remember him mentioning a clicking noise. If indeed he has that noise, it is the armature slapping against its foot. This can however be caused by a faulty IDE, SCSI, SAS, or SATA controller also, but most of the time it's the drive.