If I take out my laptop's hard drive and switch it into another laptop, will I be able to recover my files?

Question

My laptop hasn't been able to boot up, but I really need a few files for school on there, so I was thinking that, if I take it out and put it into another laptop, I could get the information I need. If I can do this, would the laptop I put the hard drive into still be able to run normally if I put back its rightful hard drive after I'm done getting my files from my hard drive?

Answer 1

Hello,

You can retrieve your data using another laptop but not by switching the drives. If you just change the original drive with the one from the failed laptop the working laptop won't boot. Windows keeps records of the hardware the HDD was connected to and if those change Windows won't start.

What you can do instead, is use a SATA to USB cable or an external HDD enclosure to connect the old HDD to the working laptop via USB. It will boot from it's original HDD and you will be able to access your data.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

There are usb adapters that will allow you to simply disconnect your HDD from the old laptop and plug it into the adapter.Then lug it's USB connector into the other laptop.This will allow you to access the old HDD's files and either burn them onto disks or use a flash drive or another external usb hdd to store them on.Another thing that can be done is purchase a DVD housing HDD adapter.This way you can remove the other laptop's dvd burner and slide your old hdd into it so you can access that way.



Hope that helps and best of luck.By the way don't try your HDD in other laptops bec you may mess up your HDD's O/S and the other comps system too.

Answer 3

What you really should do is remove the hard drive from the computer that won't boot, and get a "docking station" for the removed hard drive that will essentially turn it into an external hard drive. You can then use the other computer to open the files you need on the "docking station's external hard drive" and move the files to the computer where you can then put them on a flash drive or DVD disc. That would be the safest way to get the files.

Answer 4

Don't try putting it in a different laptop. If it boots, it can screw all kinds of things up as it tries to reconfigure Windows for the new system. Instead, get a SATA-to-USB adapter and plug the old hard drive in to that. Then plug the USB cable in to another computer and with luck it should read the old drive.

Answer 5

don't. what you propose is for technicians who KNOW what they're doing. it likely won't boot anyway. as Andy said, get an external enclosure and try to read from that with a working computer.



if that's not enough, go to cnet.com and read their editor's picks about data recovery software. as long as the HDD isn't totally slagged, you might have success that way.



moral of the story -- backup all files regularly. backup drives are cheap enough that doing a backup overnight once a week should be SOP

Answer 6

If the HDD still works, yes, but the problem will be booting the HDD, you may want to use a SATA to USB tool instead