Remove the hard drive from the laptop, connect it to any standard desktop with an adapter cable, and copy/backup/image the drive.
Adapter cable? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=2.5%22+hard+drive+adapter+cable Carl -----Original Message----- From: Windows Home/SOHO [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of McPeak, Harry D. Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 7:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: HARD: retrieving data from HD on pretty dead laptop A warning that this is long and complicated and not likely to be of general interest or use to most List members. My friend has a pretty dead Gateway laptop that she has asked me to see if I can revive. When I turn it on the HD light blinks but there is no video. When I connect an external monitor, it will start up (show the Win98 welcome screen) and then stop with a blank screen. After reinstalling Win98 I can get it to run but only if I boot from the Gateway recovery disk and then exit and start Windows in safe mode. BTW, I was able to boot off of the CD to install Win98. Running this way, I get some video driver errors but if I ignore them I can keep it running at a very crude level. I kept getting a message telling me that the system is running with 16 colors and that I should change that in the desktop properties dialogue. That's the only option available, however, when I go to properties. When running, the video is extremely degraded; icons and text are recognizable, but barely. Again oddly, when the Win98 welcome screen comes up it is in "normal" video, obviously some other resolution and color selection. At any rate, once I figured out how to get it running I decided I would try to copy the files from the HD to my external USB drive. Amazingly, when I booted up after attaching the drive I could see it in Explorer but not access it because the USB drivers weren't installed. I tried to install them from the Win98 CD but the removable CD drive doesn't work in this convoluted mode of operation. So here, finally, is the question. I think if I can install generic USB drivers off of a diskette (Windows does see and access the removable diskette drive) I may be able to get the system to access the USB drive and then copy the data from the laptop HD. Can anyone help figure out how to do that? Are there generic drivers that will work with W98, etc? Another issue, perhaps, is that my USB drive is 2.0 but I think Win98 only supports USB 1.0. Assuming that to be correct, if I can get the drivers loaded is it likely that my external drive will just run at 1.0 speed even though it is ver. 2.0 compatible? I realize the easiest solution is to throw the laptop way and start from scratch but it is important to my friend to recover the data. Among other things, her needs are very basic and Win98 may be enough for her. On top of that, she's broke and can't afford to buy new HW or SW. I have an old system I'm going to give her if I can get the data on it have a old licensed OS I can let her use. If I can't get this working, she will just not have a computer at home (use of her machine at work is restricted). As always, TIA for any help anyone can give me with this mess. Harry -- ---------------------------------------- WIN-HOME Archives: http://PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM/archives/WIN-HOME.html Contact the List Owner about anything: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Official Win-Home List Members Profiles Page http://www.besteffort.com/winhome/Profiles.html
