Need advice on recovering data from dead CL56

My motherboard for my Compal CL56 has gone bad for the second time.

Unfortunately, I desperately need some data from the hard drive, and, like an idiot, I didn't do any backups prior to mobo failure.

Is there any way to recover the data from the harddisk? If so, how? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

You need to pull the hard drive out of the casing (guides to your pc can be found on compaq.com)
Purchase this product -
http://www.mycableshop.com/itemdesc.asp?product=2.5"+to+3.5"+IDE+HardDrive+Cable+Adapter&ic=IDE4044
This allows you to hook up your hard drive to a Desktop PC via IDE (what CD-Roms connect to on the motherboard)
From there you can access the drive as a slave HD and retreive your data - for further advanced instructions, post back or pm -
Also set the HD on the IDE cable by itself, so you dont have to deal with master/slave issues.

 

Well, I bought the adapter from eBay about a week ago. I've gotten to try a couple of friend's desktops, but unfortunately their computers are also breaking down.

Usually when I open the tower, I find no open IDE ports. I've tried disconnecting the IDE cable (and power...or the four prong connection) from the CD-ROM drive, connecting that to my laptop's harddrive, and then restarting the computer. Windows did not detect the harddrive though...

Also, the adapter has four less pins on it than there are on the laptop's hardrive...so there are four non-connected pins when the adapter is on. Could that be an issue? Annoyingly..I can connect the adapter two ways...one with the exposed pins on the left and one with them on the right.

Any assistance would be helpful. Thanks.

Mike

 

Greetings!
I have taken a picture:

 

I guess that implies that I would have to buy that USB adapter for the hard drive. I think that I can get it done with the adapter that I've bought. But I'll keep that in mind if all else fails.

Mike

 

You happen to be in the Portland Oregon area? I've got the adapter you need for sure and I'd be willing to do your data recovery over a weekend or late night.

 

That's very nice of you, pyro. Next time I'm in Portland visiting friends/family--I'll make sure to screw something up and bring it over to you for repairs ;p.

 

Oh boy... lol... I figured someone was going to pounce on that

 

The better solution is to get a 2.5" external hard drive enclosure with either USB or IEEE 1394 connectivity. This way you simply plug it into any computer with either port.

However since you already have the adapter, you ignore the 4 pins that are separated on your hard drive, and just connect the adapter to the large group of pins that remain. There is a space between the groups of pins so it should be pretty easy to figure out.

 

I'd meant the picture just as a guide for orientation of the adapter. I guess if it doesn't have anything indicating which side is the top, then the image doesn't help much... in any case, you don't have to connect anything to those four pins. I'm not really sure what they're for, as I've never seen them used.

I've had nothing but good luck with usb adapters and enclosures, so they're probably good to try if your current adapter doesn't work out for you.

When you say Windows doesn't detect the drive, is there any chance Windows does detect it, but simply doesn't assign it a drive letter? I'm not sure precisely how that all works, but I remember in the past having to go into Disk Management and set drive letters manually.