Slaving a dead laptops drive

[Ericneedshelp]

One of my laptops died and I wanted to recover the data from it. I have removed the dead laptops hard drive and connected it to one of my working computers with a SATA cable. The computer recognized a drive being present but I can't access the drive, it wants me to "format" the drive. Would that not erase the data I'm trying to recover?
Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[learninmypc]

Yes, to format a drive is to erase everything on it. How did the laptop die?

 

[Route44]

Yes, you are correct, you do NOT want to format. I have purchased from Monoprice this: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10315&cs_id=1031502&p_id=8491&seq=1&format=2

It is simple to use and I was able to access my sister's crashed hard drive and its contents.

Oops! lerninmypc beat me by a few seconds.

 

[Ericneedshelp]

Actually died from old age, laptop was put into service in 2009; primarily a word / internet machine so didn't have to be fast. Gave up a week or so ago. Will start the boot up sequence then fails part way through. So I went to the DOS prompt and attempted to use a start disk and still won't come alive. I had just hoped that pulling the drive would allow me to pull off the data.

 

[learninmypc]

Actually died from old age, laptop was put into service in 2009; primarily a word / internet machine so didn't have to be fast. Gave up a week or so ago. Will start the boot up sequence then fails part way through. So I went to the DOS prompt and attempted to use a start disk and still won't come alive. I had just hoped that pulling the drive would allow me to pull off the data.

No guarantee, but IF, & I emphasize IF the harddrive is ok, you might be able to put it on another laptop to recover whatever. But, NO guarantee. Good luck.

 

[Ericneedshelp]

Thank you, I hadn't thought of that, just sliding it into the extra drive slot. Much appreciated and I hope this clears it out.

 

[learninmypc]

I wish you the best & please post back either way.