Transferring data from hard drive?

Question

This is a follow up to this question: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20160123112931AAnXgUy

A) Will plugging a hard drive that I thought was dead into a new computer really work? Everyone is telling me it will, but I don't really understand why it will work since my old laptop didn't turn on at all.

B) My old laptop was a Samsung NP530U4B, what kind of hard drive is that so I know what cord to get?

C) Excuse me if this is an idiotic question. I THINK my old laptop had antivirus software, but in all my four years of having it I don't think I ever scanned it for malware once. Seeing as I've had this new laptop for a month and have already deleted over 200 pieces of malware, wouldn't that mean there would be hundreds upon hundreds of viruses on my old laptop? And... if I plug that hard drive into my new computer could those get transferred?

Answer 1

The problem I think you have is that the tech you took it to tried to run a fast one by you when he said the drive was the problem That planted the seed in your head that the drive was bad. Your old lappy died because it had other problems most likely a chip shorted or the power supply fried. Common problems in Samsung's.



When you hook a USB to SATA cable to the hard drive and plug it up into your new lappy the software senses that and calls up the proper drivers to handle the interface for you and wala it works. I have done this many many times. It might look like magic but it is simple puter stuff. The video below shows how to remove the hard drive.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKwveNSR838



Here is a link to the cable you need.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812400542&cm_re=usb_sata_adapter-_-12-400-542-_-Product



To quote what I said in the comment section of your last question "I make no guarantees here but if it was mine I would be hooking it up thru the USB but then again I would be using a used system that's worn out and used for just that purpose." LOL I have never had a problem.



The problem you have with your new lappy is that Lenovo is very famous for installing malware in their system before they even ship. You may never get rid of it. The 2 links below are articles about what happen the last time they got caught doing this. Every time they get caught they just move on to another version of malware.



http://www.wired.com/2015/02/lenovo-superfish/



http://www.extremetech.com/computing/199628-lenovo-officially-responds-to-superfish-releases-list-of-affected-systems



If your just transferring files and data from your old lappy I doubt seriously that your going to transfer any malware from it.



Just out of curiosity, are you using Windows 10 Anti Virus. They have a very high rate of false positive. Meaning they flag a lot of files as infected that are not.



ESET is the best AV on the market in my opinion. They do not sell you out to corporate spyware or adware. It is not free but they do have a 30 free trail. They do not place a toolbar that you do not want or track what you do. These companies offering free AV have to make money some how. They do it by selling out to the corporation who peddle spyware and adware. There is a lot of free AV and firewalls on the market that are more spyware then security product. All AV have white list, that is one of the biggest strength to ESET, theirs is not for sell. The best thing about ESET is their PUP (potential unwanted program) protection. It will also alert you to rouge web sites that plant drive by viruses. It runs light on your system and does not lag your CPU while your working or playing.



http://www.eset.com/



Check this site to help you with your decision, it will open to real world protection test or how accurate the different AV are. Also look at the false alarm test and the performance test. False alarm test shows you how many files it identifies as a virus but they are not and the performance test show how light or heavy it is on your system. You have to pick the year and month to see the other two I recommended.



http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php

Answer 2

A. It will work. A dead hard drive does not cause a computer to simply not turn on at all. If a computer has a motherboard, power supply and processor, and nothing else, it will still basically turn on.



B. USB to SATA cable, your old laptop you say is 2012, so 100% SATA. Cheap on Amazon.



C. I use Windows Defender for 4 years on this Windows 8 laptop, rarely scanning it, and have never come up with malware before. What are you doing to get that much malware. What antivirus are you using. If you are using Norton, it is EXTREMELY vigilante and 90% of the time deletes legitimate software (happened to me enough times that I never got Norton again, or any paid AV really). If you plug the hard drive into the new computer and it does have viruses, it should not get transferred without some form of your allowing it (tricking you with what looks like a legitimate prompt (EVEN IF IT'S A USER ACCOUNT CONTROL PROMPT, READ IT VERY CAREFULLY AND IF YOU DIDNT SPECIFICALLY CLICK ON ANY PROGRAM DENY IT. Or, if you have autorun set on it will automatically transfer so make sure you have autorun off)

Answer 3

The drive is a separate hardware component of the laptop. As long as the drive itself was not damaged, it should be fine. It is a SATA laptop HDD that will plug into another SATA power and SATA cable.



There are two problems though since you mentioned another laptop. A laptop (at least all the ones I have seen) only has space for one internal HDD. And you cannot plug in your old drive and expect it to boot. Windows cannot be transplanted into another system unless it is 100% identical hardware. When Windows installs, it sets itself up for the computer it is installed on.



You can still recover files from the old drive. Use either an external drive kit to access the old drive without installing it. Or use a desktop with available SATA connectors to access it. You will not be able to copy your applications over since they were installed to the other Windows. But you can reinstall them on to your other laptop if you have the installation files and product keys.