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So, my wife's laptop finally died (motherboard/gpu failure) and now I need to recover all our data from the laptop hard drive. Is this possible? I imagine there are adapters for this sort of thing but I'm totally clueless as to what to do.

Any help would be awesome.

Get something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123312

Then remove the disk from the laptop (there are probably instructions in an online manual, but since it's broken you can pretty much just start removing screws and popping plates off the bottom).

Then hook it up to the gizmo above (or something substantially similar) and plug it into your computer. It'll look just like another removable drive, as long as it hasn't been damaged.

You can get an external usb enclosure. Those run around 10-20$. You can plug in the hdd and retrieve data that way.

Thanks guys, that's exactly the advice I needed

.

I know how to get the hard drive out of this thing... actually... I've rebuilt two of these laptops already with new motherboards. I just dont want to waste money on another one seeing as how the design is terrible and the GPU is also supposedly prone to failure.

Azurephoenix said:

Thanks guys, that's exactly the advice I needed .

I know how to get the hard drive out of this thing... actually... I've rebuilt two of these laptops already with new motherboards. I just dont want to waste money on another one seeing as how the design is terrible and the GPU is also supposedly prone to failure.

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Out of curiosity, since the question has been answered, what kind of laptop does she have?

It's a Dell XPS M1530... it unfortunately suffers from a poorly designed motherboard, inefficient cooling and a glitchy integrated nvidia geforce video card. I've rebuilt my dad's with a new motherboard twice. I just don't feel like doing it on this one... which is a shame because it's a huge waste of a good CPU (a T9300) and the RAM.

That's part of why I hate laptops. Hard as hell to repair and super wasteful when they're obsolete. At least with my desktop I can keep the case, fans, power supply, etc when it's time to rebuild.

Ah. This is why I try to avoid desktop replacement laptops (or laptops with a desktop replacement processor in them). They just run too damn hot, most of the time.

Tell me about it... this thing was hot as hell all the time. I guess I'm surprised it lasted this long.

I just hate buying a laptop with what I consider an inferior processor... even though it's probably way smarter in the long run.

If it's one of the models with the NVIDIA 8600M inside, you might be eligible for free service/replacement.

--Patrick

Azurephoenix said:

Tell me about it... this thing was hot as hell all the time. I guess I'm surprised it lasted this long.

I just hate buying a laptop with what I consider an inferior processor... even though it's probably way smarter in the long run.

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Oh, I totally understand that. It's why I've had several desktop replacements over the years, despite having had the same problem each time.

Then I realized, in retrospect, just how much money I was spending on repairs and got a significantly grad-school-discounted Macbook. Also runs a little hot, but nowhere near as much, and haven't spent any $$ on repairs at all over more or less the same period of time.

PatrThom said:

If it's one of the models with the NVIDIA 8600M inside, you might be eligible for free service/replacement.

Click to expand...

How do you always seem to know the right things when it comes to technology Tom?

Our laptop does qualify... but unfortunately the symptoms don't fall into the right categories. Right now... absolutely nothing happens when the power button is pressed. Well, I suppose the little blue light on the button itself lights up for about 3 seconds... but thats it. No fans, no images, no noise... nothing.

SpecialKO said:

Oh, I totally understand that. It's why I've had several desktop replacements over the years, despite having had the same problem each time.

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I love my gigantic aluminum full size tower for my desktop... plenty of space for air circulation in there... and easily upgradeable. I game too much to own a laptop... but the wife just likes to surf the web and watch movies.

Just wanted to thank you guys for the advice... I got an enclosure for the drive and I've fully recovered everything from it (plus now I have a 250gb backup drive).

Thanks again, this sub forum delivers!

Here's hoping Dave has the forum backed up!*

--Patrick
(*Well, Dave? WELL?)