If a computer "dies" due to software failures, not hardware failures, its files remain safe and sound on the hard drive, they are simply inaccessible. To recover data from hard drive broken laptop under Windows control, Mac or Linux, follow the steps below.

Steps

Install your old hard drive in an external pocket (Windows, Mac, Linux)

    Get a hard drive pocket. This is a special external device into which you can install a hard drive (hard drive) to run it on another computer by connecting it to USB port; in fact, the pocket turns your hard drive into an external hard drive. On the different models computers are installed hard drives different models, so make sure that the pocket is compatible with your wearer in all respects. For example, if your laptop has SATA drive 2.5" format, you will need a USB pocket for a SATA 2.5" drive.

    • If you have a non-SATA drive, buy a pocket strictly compatible with your laptop drive; only SATA-compatible pockets support both conventional (3.5") and laptop hard drives (2.5"), although the size of the drive must also be taken into account.
    • Pockets are rarely sold in electronics stores, it is better to look for them in online stores.
  1. If you had a Windows computer - borrow a Windows computer; if you have a Mac - take a Mac, and so on. Make sure this computer has enough free space to save files from your hard drive. Or, alternatively, you can connect your drive as a second hard drive to a working computer and use it to copy files.

  2. Mac users can connect a drive from a Windows computer and read (but not write) data from it without installing an additional driver, such as NTFS-3G or Paragon NTFS. Be careful and use Disk Utility only to "attach" the hard drive. Any other action using Disk Utility can delete the contents of the disk.

    Turn off the laptop, unplug it, remove the battery. Turn the computer over and on its cover you will see parts that can be unscrewed and removed separately from the entire cover. You can google your laptop model on the net and find out exactly where the hard drive is, or you can figure it out yourself: it varies in different laptops, but the hard drive compartment cover is about the size of a 3.5 "floppy disk. Unscrew the bolts that secure the cover and disk, remove the hard drive out of the laptop case.Sometimes you need to lift it up, sometimes pull it to the side.

    Remove the connector from the pocket body and connect it to the hard drive interface. Pay attention to the location of the pins to connect the drive correctly.

    • IDE drives often have an adapter. Pull it out if it interferes with the cable connection.
  3. Insert the hard drive into your pocket. If necessary, fix it with screws (see the instructions for the device).

    Connect the resulting external drive to a working computer via USB cable. Make sure your computer is on. When the drive is recognized, an icon will appear on the desktop (Mac) or a notification pops up in the taskbar (Windows). Depending on the settings, the contents of the disc may open automatically.

    • If Windows does not display a message about a new connected device, just go to My computer and find new disk.
    • If the drive is not recognized the first time, unplug it and plug it back in.
  4. Transfer files to a working computer or to another external hard disk. If you have accumulated a large amount of data (music, movies), then the transfer may take a long time.

    Click on the USB disk icon right click mouse and click Extract. Now you can disable old hard disk.

    Connect the old hard drive to the computer's system unit (Windows, Linux)

    1. Get an adapter for connecting hard laptop disk. With it, you can connect a laptop hard drive directly to motherboard computer. Different computer models install hard drives of different models, so make sure the adapter is compatible with your media. For example, if your laptop has a 2.5" SATA drive, you will need a SATA 2.5" drive adapter.

      Borrow a working computer that is compatible with yours. If you had a Windows computer - borrow a Windows computer; if you have Linux - take Linux, and so on. Make sure that this computer has enough free space to save files from your hard drive. Or, alternatively, you can connect your drive as a second hard drive to a working computer and use it to copy files.

      • On a Linux computer, you can view files from a Windows computer's disk, but not vice versa. If you are not familiar with both systems, then it will be better to use computers with the same operating systems for data recovery.
    2. Remove the hard drive from a non-working computer. Turn off the laptop, unplug it, remove the battery. Turn the computer over and on its cover you will see parts that can be unscrewed and removed separately from the entire cover. You can google your laptop model on the net and find out exactly where the hard drive is, or you can figure it out yourself: it varies in different laptops, but the hard drive compartment cover is about the size of a 3.5 "floppy disk. Unscrew the bolts that secure the cover and disk, remove the hard drive out of the laptop case.Sometimes you need to lift it up, sometimes pull it to the side.

      • IDE drives often have a removable adapter. Just remove it so you can put it back in later.
    3. Turn off the computer system unit, unplug it and remove the side cover. With the adapter, you can connect your old hard drive directly to your computer's motherboard.

      Connect the "dead" hard drive to the computer using an adapter. The connection order depends on the disk standard and adapter type, so follow the instructions for the adapter.

      • If you have an IDE drive, set the jumper to "slave" before connecting it to the IDE cable. The black jumper is on the 3 or 4 pin pins next to the IDE interface. This mode will help to avoid its conflict when booting with the main disk of a computer that is in “master” mode.
    4. Set up your computer to recognize the new drive. Connect the system unit to a power outlet, turn it on and enter the BIOS. Go to Standard CMOS Settings or IDE Configuration, where you will see the drive settings, including the "master" and "slave" mode settings. Set all fields to "auto-detection".

      Save changes, exit BIOS and restart your computer. The computer should automatically recognize the new hardware.

      Open a "new" drive. If you are using Windows, go to My computer and look for the new disk icon. On Linux, the new drive will show up in the folder dev.

      • If the drive is not recognized or readable, the problem is most likely with the drive itself and not the laptop. In this case, you may need professional help to recover your data. Please note that the cost of such services can be very high.
    5. View and copy old files. Transfer files to a working computer or to an external hard drive. If you have accumulated a large amount of data (music, movies), then the transfer may take a long time.

      Turn off the system unit and unplug it to remove your hard drive from the system (if necessary). Since the disk is intact and working, it can still serve you.

    Access files on the drive using another computer (Mac Only)

      Get a FireWire cable. Buy a new one (200-400 rubles) or borrow from a friend.

      Borrow a working Mac. Make sure that this computer has enough free space to save files from your hard drive. Or, alternatively, you can connect your drive as a second hard drive to a working computer and use it to copy files.

      Connect a dead Mac to a working one with a FireWire cable. During connection working Mac it should be switched off.

      With your running Mac turned on, press the T key until the FireWire icon appears. This will start the computer in “Target Mode” (External Drive Mode), which means that this Mac will provide access to both the drive of the connected computer and its hard drive.

      • If you are using OS X 10.4: Turn on your computer, after it boots up, log in System settings > Boot volume > External Disk Mode. Restart your computer so that it starts in External Disk Mode.
    1. Locate and open the drive of the non-working Mac. If the disk is not visible, most likely your laptop has physical damage and you should contact service center for repair. This can cost you quite a bit.

      Keep old files. Transfer files to a running Mac or external hard drive. If you have accumulated a large amount of data (music, movies), then the transfer may take a long time.

      When finished, close the window with hard files disk. The good news is that the drive still works and will still serve you if you reinstall your operating system.

      Right-click on the connected disk icon and click Eject. Now you can turn off the non-working computer.

    • If you suspect that old computer infected with viruses, do not forget to scan the old hard drive with an antivirus before transferring any files to another media or computer.
    • If you do not want to return the hard drive back to old laptop and it still works, you can always leave it as an external drive or a second drive in your system unit.

If on a non-working PC is stored important information, it can be easily pulled from the hard drive to a new medium and saved.

Separate drive

If the hard drive is stored separately from the PC, then data from it can be copied to media using adapter or special pocket.

In the first case, you need to buy USB-SATA/IDE adapter, which connects to the hard drive and to the PC at the same time and allows you to copy information. The adapter is compact and easy to use, allowing you to work with hard drives of SATA and IDE interfaces.

Adapter for connecting a hard drive to USB

The second way is to buy special pocket(a box with connectors) in which the hard drive is placed. Using the built-in SATA controller, it allows you to use the hard drive as a USB flash drive by connecting a USB cable to a PC.


External disc pocket

For frequent work with different hard drives, it is better to buy a USB-IDE / SATA adapter, since it can work with two interfaces. And the pocket is ideal for working with one permanent hard drive.

Disk in non-working PC

If the OS refuses to boot, you can save the data, because despite software failures, the information remains intact. But to transfer files, you need an external drive or flash drive.

Microsoft-MSDaRT

The Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset is a program that allows you to boot the system from removable media, even with total file damage. The user gets access to NTFS volumes, registry and drivers, and this is enough to copy information. You can download it from the official website of the company.

The utility must be downloaded to the media and run on a non-working device, after which:


The process is extremely simple, so even an ordinary user can handle it.

Live CD

A system with a liveCD is suitable for any OS, and the Dr.Web LiveDisk recovery disk is used. After downloading, you need to run on the PC from the media:



The program with the Dr.Web interface works on the same principle as the previous one.

Connecting a drive to another computer

To connect the hard drive to a working PC, you need to remove it from the old computer:

After removing the hard drive, you need to connect it in standard ways, which are indicated in the first paragraph.

Cloning

Cloning is a process that allows you to transfer a completely removable hard drive connected to a PC. the entire partition structure built-in hard drive along with all the data and settings. Done using the same special programs but the procedure is the same:



After the operation is completed, all data from the selected disk will be copied to the removable disk along with partitions and data. After that it will be possible run OS from a removable hard drive.

Acronis TrueImage Utility

Extracting data from a laptop hard drive

The difficulty of working with a laptop is that getting its hard drive is a little more difficult due to the solidity of the design:


After that, the detached hard drive can be connected to any PC using an adapter or a pocket. You just need to choose the right pocket (pay attention to the SATA or IDE interface).

Transfer files between PC and laptop

Data can be copied between different devices: from a hard drive to a PC or laptop, from a PC to a removable disk, etc. To copy data using external drive necessary:


Another way to transfer files is creation local network using a cable. If the device has Gigabit Ethernet adapters with MDI-X installed, a regular cable will do, otherwise you need to purchase a cross-over cable:

You can copy data over a Wi-Fi network:


The choice of a specific method of transmitting information always depends on the initial conditions: whether the device works, whether there are additional tools for work, etc.

In both the first and second methods, you can find the “Network” link in the explorer, expand it and you can see all available computers on the network. By default, on a PC, all folders are closed from access from the network. To fix this you need:


In this article, we will look at programs that will help you quickly clone (copy) a hard drive to another hard drive. Such knowledge will be useful to any owner of a computer or laptop.

Upgrading a computer or laptop often involves replacing the hard drive with a more capacious and faster one. At the same time, users are faced with the problem of transferring information from the installed media to a new one, because in order to reinstall the system, drivers and desired applications, you have to spend a lot of time.

It is much easier in this situation to carry out full or partial cloning of an HDD or SSD using one of the specialized programs. Setting up and working with them do not require special knowledge, and the time spent on the cloning process is an order of magnitude less than on installing the OS and setting up.

Copying a hard drive in Acronis True Image

One of the functions of this useful program is disk cloning, which, by the way, can be configured very finely depending on the tasks of a particular user. To avoid possible errors during the operation, no need to use Acronis true image from under a running OS - it is recommended to run the application using a boot disk. Therefore, you will need the Acronis BootCD/DVD distribution kit, which will need to be unpacked to DVD or even to a flash drive, for example, using UltraISO, UNetbootin, etc.

After creating bootable media, you can proceed directly to cloning:

  1. Boot from the created help from Acronis BootCD/DVD drive.
  2. In the Acronis main window, open the Tools and Utilities section.

  3. On the right in the list of utilities, go to "Disk Cloning" and select auto mode carrying out the process. Click next.
  4. Select with left click source disk information to be copied, click Next.

  5. In the next window, select the target drive where you plan to clone the old HDD. The target drive can be either an HDD or a high-speed modern SSD.

If you are copying to a solid state drive, then the usual situation will be when its capacity is less connected HDD. In this case, Acronis True Image will display a message about the need to exclude certain files and folders from the cloning process.

Usually, only the system is transferred to the SSD, so only the main disk partition (usually “C”) can be allocated for exact copying, excluding partitions or individual files with unnecessary information from the process. If the volume of the disk allows cloning old drive completely, you can click "Next", after which the process of sector-by-sector low-level copying of the disk will start.

Note that the application is paid, but it is multifunctional, very fast and, as shown, has the ability to select data on the hard drive for transfer.

Using the Paragon Hard Disk Manager App

This multifunctional application is only slightly inferior in popularity to the program described above. It is also convenient to use it to clone information on drives:


Like Acronis True Image, this application for reliable sector-by-sector data copying is better to run not from under Windows, but from a boot drive. You can create it in the program itself, using a special rescue media creation wizard:


Note that Paragon Hard Disk Manager is also a paid application, but its functionality is no less than that of Acronis True Image. Both of them work with any disks and file systems, support Windows 8.1 and 10.

Disk cloning using EASEUS Disk Copy

This small application, unlike those previously considered, is completely free, but nevertheless it allows you to reliably clone hard drives, their individual partitions sector-by-sector and migrate the OS to various drives, including solid-state SSDs. The program is launched from a bootable DVD or flash drive, for which you need to download a free distribution kit for installation on the official website of the utility. After running the executable setup file, the wizard will offer a choice:

  • install EASEUS Disk Copy on a USB flash drive,
  • to the optical drive
  • export the ISO image of the utility to a computer disk.

A simple and quick option is to create bootable flash drive, i.e. the first one in the list.

In the next window, specify the disk to be copied and the drive to which information will be transferred sector-by-sector. A certain drawback of the application is the lack of Russian localization.

After cloning a Windows 10 boot disk, sometimes the system may not boot. In this case:


If you get a File: \Boot\BCD error after booting, repair Windows bootloader.

Cloning Disks with Macrium Reflect

This is another small utility distributed free of charge. Its functionality includes cloning HDD and SSD, creating them complete images, as well as images of individual partitions that can be used in the OS as virtual media. The installer can be obtained from application website, when you start it, you need to specify the installation directory and select the "Free" license.

When you first start Macrium Reflect, it will prompt you to create boot disk, with which one should agree, since when working in Windows environment cloning can be error prone. After starting the program:

  1. In the main window, select the drive to be cloned.
  2. Under the selected drive, click on the link "Clone this disk" and in the next window select the drive to which you want to transfer the information.

Using the Farstone RestoreIT Pro utility

it paid application is used to create backups of any information on disks, saving the current state of the system, and in case of unforeseen failures, restoring it literally by pressing a single button.

The mechanism of work is that it overwrites boot sector disk, adding itself to it, and also creates an additional logical disk to record all the backed up information. In fact, Farstone RestoreIT Pro creates system restore points, and it can be used to roll back to the previous state not only the entire disk, but also individual partitions.

You can activate and deactivate the application in context menu, the latter is opened by clicking on the tray icon. This feature allows you to save system resources when you are sure that its state is in this moment does not change. Farstone RestoreIT Pro can create bootable CD / DVD or even floppy disks, with which you can not only restore the disk if it cannot boot normally, but also the main boot record MBR with partition table.

How to quickly copy a hard drive to another hard drive (HDD/SSD)

4.5 (90%) 8 votes.

operating room Windows system- according to most users, one of the most reliable systems. Most likely it is.

But let's face it - to bring it out of its normal working state, anything can.

Viruses, Malware, poor quality software, Microsoft's own updates, drivers, incompatible hardware, and a million other reasons why Windows sometimes "pleases" its users with blue screens.

Then you can choose one of several versions of this distribution. We will choose the version based on the desktop environment MATE, 32-bit. But you can choose anything - any distribution will work for our purposes.


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Next, we will be asked to select a mirror to download based on your location. If you are in Russia, you can choose a mirror Yandex Team, if in another country, choose a server that is closer to you.

Download Universal USB Installer

There are many programs that allow you to write an image of a Linux distribution to a USB flash drive. We will use one of them, called Universal USB Installer. It is very easy to use, does not require installation, and allows you to select a recording profile for a specific distribution.

The program download page is located at this address.

Try to download from there, otherwise you may get to a fraudulent link and install something completely different from what you expected.

Writing an image to a flash drive

Now run the program you just downloaded − Universal Usb Installer. In the picture below, we see a window in which we will set up the recording. This window should not be frightened, its complexity is deceptive. Actually, it couldn't be easier.

Let's take a look at its settings.

  1. Step 1: Select a Linux Distribution from the dropdown to put in your USB flash drive. — This item prompts us to choose which "family" of Linux our image belongs to. We downloaded Linux Mint, so we choose it accordingly. If you have downloaded, say, Ubuntu, then in this drop-down menu you should select it. Otherwise, the program will not "see" the image file.
  2. Step 2: Select your linuxmint*.iso– This step offers us by clicking on the button select the image file itself. It is written here linuxmint*.iso. Therefore, the program will search for an image by this mask. If Ubuntu had been selected in the first step, the mask would have been ubuntu*desktop*.iso.Just go to the folder where you downloaded the image and select it.
  3. Step 3: Select your USB Flash Drive Letter Only- here we are invited to choose our flash drive. If for some reason, the flash drive is not on the list, try ticking the box on the right. Here you should also check the box for formatting the flash drive (make sure that you don’t have anything important on it).
  4. Step 4: Set a Persistent file size for storing changes is a rather interesting point. It allows you to make a disk image "changeable" - install additional programs, save documents to the Desktop and folders, Russify Mint, etc. We recommend setting the slider to at least 1 Gigabyte (approximately). This will make your flash drive more convenient.
  5. treasured button - will start to create.

That's all the freezes. You can drink coffee again. The process will take some time. It all depends on the flash drive speed hard disk, and a friend's computer as a whole.

Now there is just a little left - it will boot from this very flash drive. If you have succeeded in all of the above, most likely this will not be a problem for you.

Working in Linux Mint or how to extract data from a laptop hard drive.

After a couple of minutes of loading, you will receive a fully functional system with which you can transfer data from one of your disks to another. To do this, you just need to open file manager, find your disks in its left part and open them (mount). And then everything is the same as in Windows - + and + or simply "Copy paste".

Epilogue

Nobody said that the second method would be easy. On the contrary, there are ways easier and more comfortable. There are a lot of alternative options. There are also ready-made assemblies based on Windows itself.

This method is not a panacea. It's just one of the ways.

But, as mentioned above, in addition to what everything was started for, this system has everything for comfortable work. Browser, mail client, image and video viewers, photos. Also have office suite Libre Office (good replacement Microsoft Office) and much more.

When checking this method, NeOshibka.Ru has permission problems. Files created in Linux Mint (for example, screenshots) did not want to open in Windows 8, which for some reason cursed at the length of the name and, understandably, write protection. Most likely the author forgot to mention this.

In order for everything to be fine, immediately after the first boot of Linux Mint, you need to open a terminal, and enter the following commands in turn:

sudo adduser neoshibka

Then answer a couple of system questions and set a password.

sudo adduser neoshibka sudo //where neoshibka is your username

After that, you need to end the session and log in as your user with the password that you entered a little earlier.

Today is not only a century modern technologies, but also the digital age, where this invisible dimension intersects more and more with ours. Data, everyday routine and ordinary operations, life and communication - more and more it acquires a hi-tech shade. However, in the development computer technology the world has gone through an evolutionary stage, from the beginning to our day, and therefore, some of the data stored in old computers needs to be moved to new modern counterparts.

Much has changed dramatically since those years, new data transfer standards have appeared, new ports and services for exchanging computer digital information, protocols, and so on, however, de facto, the information remains the same - it is encoded in a set of machine code, and there can be no problems with moving it in essence. But how transfer data from old computer to new- this is the main topic of this article.

Under the concept old computer it is worth defining a really ancient unit by the standards of the development of modern technologies, which lacks many methods of both transferring and logging the methods of this very data transfer. Let's assume that the computer is very old and has no communications such as SATA, USB, Card-reader, CD Drive and no network card.

It would seem that the case is hopeless, however, there is a solution to this, so you should not despair. Get to the point.

The first way to move data would be, of course, regular floppy disk. They were distributed and used as media even on older computers. Floppy drives or floppy ports can be found on system blocks the past generation. Unfortunately, ordinary floppy disks are small (up to 1.5 MB) and therefore you will have to transfer information with many repetitions, first breaking it into pieces of 1.5 MB, doing it gradually. To accept the information, you will need another diskette drive on the new computer. They are now available as external devices with a connection format via USB 2.0, and therefore it will not be difficult to transfer information.

This is the first and most classic way to copy the information from the old computer to the new one, and by the way, the easiest to implement. More exotic, but more effective methods of transferring data from computer to computer will follow.

The second method is to using a standard USB connector. But how? Above, it was stipulated that it is not in the computer. There are special SATA/IDE bus adapters, which turn these ports into USB standard using a peripheral control bus and a connector for the corresponding device. Information is transferred quickly and without problems, so it can be copied to a regular solid-state drive or external HDD, from which the data transfer will go to the new computer without interference, since they are all equipped with USB ports 2.0/3.0. The difficulty lies in the implementation itself. It is very difficult to find such an adapter device, since they are sold in small batches and are produced by only one factory. Its price is not high, by no means, even small, but it will be very difficult to find. To do this, it is better to bypass the Internet. search queries to know where you can buy such a miracle of technology. In a word, if the search is successful, then it will be easy and simple to transfer information, and if desired, it will even be possible to download the entire computer using such an interface to an external hard drive (in the sense that all the contents of an old personal computer will fit on an external hard drive of medium volume).

Well, another option would be to work directly with hard drive computer. The fact is that from a technical point of view, this is the easiest way to implement the “data transfer from an old computer” project. The bottom line is to transfer materials directly from the built-in HDD. To do this, you will have to disassemble the computer from which the data will be transferred, and at the same time remove the information core from it - the hard disk. However, at the same time, you need to know the format of the built-in data storage, namely, there are 2.5” and 3.5” HDDs. To extract useful data from them, it will be possible to use two methods - by connecting the seized hard drive from the old machine directly to the new computer via a bus that will lead directly to the motherboard. It's like attaching another hard drive to the machine. Well, then, a simple operation of copying data will be the solution to the whole problem.

It's just a pretty tricky operation. All aspects must be taken into account. Hard disk form factor, dimension, type of connection to the motherboard (for the old personal computer), type of connectors, and other nuances. Well, so is the compatibility of the data of new and old computers, both hardware and software.

You also need to know the properties of the process, since here you need to essentially combine 2 computers into one. Without knowledge on the topic, it is very easy to break firewood, since it is easy to take out the part, and then not everyone can connect it correctly. This requires consultation and good base knowledge, and only then it will be possible to start work and complete it with success.

But, there is a second option, for the "lazy", as it is easier to implement and perform. It is suitable for both computer professionals and beginners. Available for sale today hard drive adapters via analog bus USB 2.03.0 – IDE/SATA. This is essentially a connector-slot into which a hard drive from a child personal computer is placed, and the slot is connected to the main reader via the USB bus (in this case it reads new computer), and this technology is used to exchange information. It is not very difficult to implement this, but again, you need to know all the features of the computer hard drive, which acts as a storage medium, and from which this information will be overwritten to another device. Such dock fopry(or mobile chassis) are relatively inexpensive. They serve for a long time, and can be used with all types of hard drives, not only with old ones, but also with any modern ones, suitable for the parameters of the existing station. Ports are so easy to use, feature rich and advanced, and are the most fast way obtaining information from the hard disk of any personal equipment.

But, you should not go into battle without preparation, as you can break firewood. You need at least a little knowledge about the operation, and how to do it, because for a simple data removal, you first have to dismantle its native hard drive from the old computer, and then connect it to mobile chassis, which in turn will connect the receiving new computer by wire. Forums and helpful tips for this will be very useful.

What else? Perhaps everything. These are the most popular and doable how to transfer data from old computer to new, and therefore, using the above tips, any file transfer will be carried out successfully and without any problems. Knowledge and preparation is the key to success here.

Otherwise, it is difficult to describe something quickly and briefly, since configurations may differ in the presence or absence of various hardware components, and depending on this, both the number and content of answers to the question posed at the beginning will vary.