If your laptop should go bust unexpectedly and cannot reboot again after having tried everything including the repair of OS using Recovery/Repair Console, and you would like to retrieve important data from the laptop HDD, you can use the following methods and it will allow you to do just that (Retrieve data).
Method 1
Purchase a “Laptop Hard Drive Adaptor Kit” to allow you to plug your laptop hard drive into a standard PC (2.5 TO 3.5 inch IDE HDD).
Find a functioning standard PC that can read the file system that was on the laptop. One would need Windows 2k/XP or a Linux distribution to read an NTFS/FAT file system, whereas only a Linux distribution can read the EXT3 file system.
Open up the case and add the laptop drive with adaptor kit as a secondary HDD. Be sure that you have set this drive to either Cable Select, or Slave, depending on the configuration of the system, and the available IDE ports.
Copy the data you need from the laptop drive to the main drive of the PC, or consider using removable storage for small files.
Method 2
Purchase or cannibalize a 2.5" USB 2.0 or Firewire drive enclosure.
Find a functioning standard PC with an open USB port (or firewire port, as applicable) that can read the file system that was on the laptop. One would need Windows 2k/XP or a Linux distribution to read an NTFS/FAT file system, whereas only a Linux distribution can read the EXT3 file system.
Plug it in, wait for the tones (and/or mount it if that is necessary in this system)
Copy the data you need from the laptop drive to the main drive of the PC, or consider using removable storage for small files.
Re: How to retrieve Data from a dead laptop: Instructions
^^ Or if the HDD is not password protected, but the important data on it is encrypted (lets say using Truecrypt etc.), to phir?
If its just a drive then you can copy it off and use it on another system since all Truecrypt requires is that you remember the password. There is no panga of Secure keyring or Public keyring.
You need to know with which versions of Trucrypt that container was created. If versions don’t match, phir Allah hafiz.
Have already lost some data due to this reason.
Here I have lost you a bit. We are talking about retrieving the data from THAT particular hard disk, assuming no images are kept. Besides, if you do have an image of a raw system installation, what would you do with the important data that was saved afterwards?
yeah making an image is better option, but how aften people do that? considering daily changes in user data.
PS: lets talk about taking ownership of the files from different installation. I know how to do it for individual file. Is there any quiker way to do it? I mean for the whole folders in one go?
yeah making an image is better option, but how aften people do that? considering daily changes in user data.
PS: lets talk about taking ownership of the files from different installation. I know how to do it for individual file. Is there any quiker way to do it? I mean for the whole folders in one go?
Xeno, if it is only about retrieving data, these days you can mount NTFS in read/write mode from Linux. And as an SU from Linux, you can change any files/folder permissions of NTFS as suits you.
I think so, may be Navaidishere can enlighten us more?
**That happens and the only solution to that is develop a password schema then follow random passwords. For example, add special characters or capital letters at specific places i.e. %ThegreenwolfschponkingmyHD666%DONE. I can explain it a bit further, if you’re interested. Anyway, If you use standard schema, you’re unlikely to forget your passwords.
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Absolutely, but minor changes are discounted. Still its an open source software, you can download the code and reverse the code revisions to the build you want and compile it. Might take a while if they are using subversion or CVS but with GIT it would be a matter of seconds.
This use to be the case but any decent imaging software these days does not copy entire HD, if you’re just backing up daily changes.
**Seriously, if you take out the downloading part from your computer. How much does your system changes on daily basis? For a person like me who updates even the slightest build changes in a software, the last I updated my computers was for K-Lite Mega Codec pack from 4.4.2 to 4.4.5, Trojan Remover updates (4KB) and Zone Alarm AntiVirus Updates(2MB) and PeerGuardian (few megs) or phpDesigner 6.2.1 to 6.2.2. That’s it. Other softwares haven’t been updated in years from vendors because they work fine.
The max you’ll update weekly will be less then 50mb. Imaging works better then system restore and softwares like True Image are far more reliable these days. More reliable then the System Restore feature of Windows.
As for the downloads, I have an external drive connected to my router where all the backup images or downloads are saved.
Any corporation you work for implements the same structure.**
it’s not about how much data it is, it’s about how IMPORTANT that data is; if your compuetr also serves as home office desktop then you can imagine. For me loosing MY one week’s data may incure extra project costs and loss of two week’s men hours the least. :hinna:
that is why I have two hard disks and I copy across data on daily basis.
**Mine does too and I go lengths to protect it. I always take a nightly backup of the system changes on a RAID HD. Other important data I backup online like my secure keyrings/public keyrings, important client data or project data on steekr and maintain an extra copy on dreamhost account. On top of that I collaborate through services like DropBox which maintains an online copy and use revision tracking softwares like Groove or Collanos. Git, to me, is the best version control system and that too I backup online along with my code, ofcourse a copy of it goes on dreamhost. Recently, dreamhost server crashed and they were unable to recover data but then again I had two more copies of all my important data i.e. local and steekr. * And all of this is Free except Groove & dreamhost and these two can be free as well ***
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