Hard Drive Help

Ok, So basicaly, my old computer's heat thing fried, so my dad took out the hard drive to protect it (he used to run a computer store and stuff). Basically, he's a little lazy now. Is there anyway to change the hard drive into an external one so I can get the files off of it without having to pop it in a new computer, like somehow get it into a USB form or something? thanks.

 

There is no way. The only way you can do it is connect it to a new computer, and export the files in a way that you can retrieve them later.

 

i dont think so. It wont be hard to put it in your new computer if its SATA you can just plug it in. Or if its PATA (has 40pins) you need to put the jumper on slave.

 

If you buy a cheap external hard drive and take it apart, you'll see that the inside is just a regular hard drive connected to an adapter. Just swap out that hard drive with the one you want to recover data from, and you should be fine.
Disclaimer: I'm not sure this is the case with ALL external drives

 

No it isent a regular hard drive with an adapter. And if you take apart a hard drive its going to break.

 

to the people saying he can't access it? WHY NOT

buy a 3.5 inch external enclosure and you will be able to access your files from a friend's computer and back em up. below is just an example of one (i've never used that one before, so i dunno how it will persorm)

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7917

 

I mean the external casing of an external hard drive, not the hard drive itself. And it is a regular hard drive with an adapter in most cases.

 

You can buy an adapter where you just put a hard drive into it and it works as if its an external.

 

He's right^^.

In most cases the companies just buy a cheap SATA HDD and plug it into a nice cady/adapter.

 

Just buy a cheap harddrive, 5gb ones sell for $30

 

Its very easy, either buy a external hard drive case (a USB one) and put the hard drive in that, or buy an IDE (or SATA if thats your hard drive type) to USB connector.

- Phatmat.

edit:

I can buy a 500gb hard drive for $100 .. But thats not what he's asking.

 

Plug a USB link cable into your computer, And plug it into another computer thats working currently or just another hard drive.

 

ok, so where can I get one of these adapters to change the hard drive plug in thingy- to a usb?

 

newegg. Just search 'external HDD'.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=hard+drive+image&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Use one of those links, then put the image onto a portable media device.
I think creating an image should compress it down. Not sure tho :S