Mike's musings

Computer maintenance 102

Back by popular demand, and this time it's "how to get your PC to talk to your dad's old hard drive as a second drive so you can get the data off it".

The easiest way to do it is this (note that if you're running Windoze, you may need to load some drivers first: most modern Linux distributions should do this all very simply):

1. buy a USB<->SATA/ATA kit, make sure it comes with a power connector, too, like this one
2. turn off the old computer, remove the power lead
3. open up the computer from which you wish to get the data
4. disconnect all the leads from the back of the old drive
5. (optionally, but it's easiest if you do) unscrew the old drive from its housing and remove it from the case
6. connect the ATA/SATA cable to the old drive. Only one of the connectors will fit, and it will only fit one way up, but check, because if you force it, you can cause yourself some problems
7. plug the power cable into the back of the old drive (ditto, only one way up, etc.), but don't turn it on yet
8. turn on the computer to which you wish to transfer the data
9. put the USB connector into the new computer
10. turn the power on to the disk drive, listen to it spin up
11. wait for the drive to be recognised as an external drive by the OS: this will take a few seconds (probably more on Windoze)
12. copy the data across
13. unmount the drive via the OS
14. disconnect the USB cable
15. turn off the power to the drive
16. you're done!

The other way to do it, if the "new" machine isn't a laptop, is to open it up and connect the hard drive to the machine using the relevant connectors inside it, but this may not work for various reasons (including lack of relevant cables), and is introduces some risks.

The other, other way is to ask a geeky friend to do it for you. If you trust your geeky friend, if they don't charge too much, and if you're happy that there's no confidential information on it.

Labels: friends, geekery