Using HDD of old laptop

[Rifero]

Hi all,

my old laptop, a Packard Bell EasyNote LJ 65, has died recently.
Died as in, serious CPU damage so there is no way I can ever turn it on again.

Now I have this new laptop, a Toshiba Satellite C670D, and I was wondering if I can use my old HDD from the Packard Bell in my new Toshiba?
What's the best way I can do this?

I have some very important data on this HDD which definitely may not lose.


Thanks in advance.

 

[SNGX1275]

You can put it in there, it probably won't boot up though. Best course would be to get an adapter or a dock so you can connect it to your other laptop through USB.

 

[raybay]

That Packard Bell uses an IDE hard drive, right? Whereas the Toshiba requires a SATA hard drive... You can use the PB in an external enclosure to backup files. You could use it in another laptop that requires IDE drives... but If I have the right model down right, you are wanting to mix technologies.

 

[SNGX1275]

I googled the Pack Bell comp and concluded it has a SATA drive. Its got a C2D in it and a 500gig hd, figured (perhaps incorrectly) that it would be SATA then.

 

[Rifero]

Mine had only 150GB (altho it showed as 148GB on my screen).
Maybe this will help, it's the service guide of my old laptop.

 

[SNGX1275]

Yep, it helped. Its a SATA drive. Page 20 (by page numbers in the footer) or real page 30 of that pdf.

 

[Rifero]

So this means I can safely use my old HDD in my new laptop?
I hope more people can confirm this since I do not want to risk any hardware damage.

Thanks for the quick replies. =)

 

[Cinders]

No it does not mean that at all!

If the drive connector in your laptop isn't the same as your new hard drive you won't be able to connect the two devices anyway. And you'll probably not be able to boot into the old drive on your new computer even if you do manage to replace the new drive with your old drive. You'll need a SATA to USB drive enclosure for your old drive so you can connect it to your new computer and get files off of it.

Most of the above was already stated by SNGX1275

 

[SNGX1275]

You can use it 100% confirmed.

Can you boot laptop 2 from the hd from laptop 1? Probably not. I said that in my first post in this thread.

If you must get the data off of it, like I said above, you need to get a dock, and put the drive in it.

There are alternatives, but none are going to be any easier than just buying a dock. That should cost you somewhere around $30 and will serve you well in the future. Your alternative is to take your drive to someone who charges for computer repair or recovery, they will have a dock and will charge you more than $30. If its a 'recovery' place it will likely be several hundred dollars.

Most of the above was already stated by SNGX1275

Cheers! You posted before I finished mine (didn't notice until mine was submitted), so I replied and merged my posts so I don't drive my post count up excessively high

 

[Rifero]

Alright, I guess I misunderstood it because I thought they were both SATA drives.

Thanks for the help.

 

[SNGX1275]

They are both sata, but you can't just take a bootable drive from one computer and put it in another and have everything be rosy*.

The drive you have from the old one, is still fine (likely). But it won't boot up the other because its Windows configuration is based on different hardware than what you are now trying to use it in. So yes, literally, you can use that drive in the 'new' laptop. But you will need to reinstall windows. That will kill, at the very least, your installed programs.

SO. If you want the data off the drive, you need to copy it somewhere else first.

*You can get XP to boot on pretty different hardware, sometimes, by, PRIOR to removing the drive from the first system, deleting almost (maybe all) hardware from device manager. Its still questionable if it will work. And also questionable on the legality of it, if its an OEM windows its certainly not legal, if its a retail non upgrade, then it probably is legal, but you may run into activation issues.