Laptop Dead

**101RRS** · 11th January 2012, 05:05 PM

My laptop has been dying for a little while and has finally died - dry joints, dust and other stuff - dropped too many times - just faded away. Hardrive is all OK though - except for security reasons I had a password on the Hard Drive.

The problem now is that when I connect the old laptop hard drive to my PC the computer tells me that it has loaded drivers and the device is ready to use but it does not appear on windows explorer so I cannot gain access to the drive (and the files and emails etc).

What I was expecting was that the PC would recognize the drive but I would be asked for the password for it to work - but this has not happened.

So does anyone have any idea how I can get this drive working as a secondary drive on another computer so I can get my stuff off it.

Thanks

Garry

mikehzz · 11th January 2012, 05:42 PM

It sounds like the drive has karked it. What shows if you go into control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management?

**101RRS** · 11th January 2012, 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by mikehzz

It sounds like the drive has karked it. What shows if you go into control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management?

No - the hard drive is fine - it was the on/off switch that karked it and the switch is the type that are embedded in the circuitry.

When I do go into control panel etc it shows the drive but says it is not initialized - but it will not initialize. I suspect that it is the need to enter the password which is bios controlled (the bios in the dead laptop) before anything can be read on the HDD - I guess the HDD password is working as it was intended - security to stop undesirables reading the hardrive if it was stolen.

Cheers

Garry

sheerluck · 11th January 2012, 06:16 PM

Garry,

What OS was the old laptop on, and what is the new PC on?

**101RRS** · 11th January 2012, 06:26 PM

The drive was with XP and the PC is Windows 7 - certainly XP will read Win 7 files so I assume the reverse would be the case.

Cheers

garry

**Debacle** · 11th January 2012, 07:09 PM

Are you connecting it direct to your pc or via an external enclosure ?

**101RRS** · 11th January 2012, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Debacle

Are you connecting it direct to your pc or via an external enclosure ?

I have tried both - as the secondary drive and via an external enclosure - the computer has treated them the same.

**Debacle** · 11th January 2012, 07:32 PM

Just wondering if you could try disconnecting your other drives and just using your laptop drive, do a fresh install of xp or 7, without formating the drive and see if you can find your files then.

**Ferret** · 11th January 2012, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by garrycol

I guess the HDD password is working as it was intended - security to stop undesirables reading the hardrive if it was stolen.

Cheers

Garry

Repair Station Said to be able to unlock HDD's. Don't know - never tried it myself though.

**101RRS** · 11th January 2012, 08:51 PM

That Repair Station might be the go if all else fails.

Thanks for that.

Cheers

Garry

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