Expert on old hp laptop harddrives

[Dwalt]

I have a question and it may be foolish to an expert but sounds plausable to me. I have an old HP Laptop dv1000 that my wife gave me for Xmas in 2004. Up to 1 year ago it worked perfectly and then one day it just wouldn't turn on (either by battery or by power cord) so I took it to Office Depot and they checked out the same thing I did and found the same answers and suggested it may be the Mother board. Being a Senior and only getting disability I couldn't afford to have it repaired and therefore I lost all my pictures. Now for the funny question, by chance I was on Ebay and I saw people selling different variations of this same model of used laptop, (some missing a hard drive), but is there a way to see if one would be compariable with my old hard drive and I could then install my old hard drive and then retreive my files and transfer them to another external hard drive? If its any help my hard drive in a Fujitsu 40 gb ata ide MHT 2040 At

 

[electrontau]

You might be able to use a USB-to-IDE adapter and make your hard drive into an external drive. You can connect the USB to another computer and get your pictures (burn them to a DVD).

The adapter cost around $10. There is no box to protect the hard drive. You can also get an IDE enclosure but cost a bit more.

 

[tlmck]

Something like this should work for you, although it would probably cost more to ship than it is worth. Cannot speak to the quality either, but reviews seem decent. At least it gives you an idea of what to look for. http://www.amazon.com/Inchs-Laptop-External-Portable-Enclosure/dp/B001QWOADY/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1329797524&sr=1-2

 

[Dwalt]

Something like this should work for you, although it would probably cost more to ship than it is worth. Cannot speak to the quality either, but reviews seem decent. At least it gives you an idea of what to look for. http://www.amazon.com/Inchs-Laptop-External-Portable-Enclosure/dp/B001QWOADY/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1329797524&sr=1-2

Thank you, I've asked a couple of Sales people if they made some adapter of some kind and everyone said not that they knew off, but of course I probably asked in such a way that they didn't understand what I was talking about and I didn't. I appreciate your help and will look into it and try it.
My wife died 6 years ago and some of her final final days before she got sick where on there is the reason I would really like to get them if I can and the last time (when I was working) I had some computer work done the guy charged me $80 an hr and worked for 4 hrs and never solved the problem, but charged me $320. so I'm terrified to take it to the Geek Squad or somewhere, so I appreciate your help very much, thank you again

 

[Dwalt]

You might be able to use a USB-to-IDE adapter and make your hard drive into an external drive. You can connect the USB to another computer and get your pictures (burn them to a DVD).

The adapter cost around $10. There is no box to protect the hard drive. You can also get an IDE enclosure but cost a bit more.

I want to thank you for your help. I've asked sales people if they made or sold an adapter and no one knew of any, but they probably didn't understand what I was asking.
I thank you again for your help

 

[tlmck]

Thank you, I've asked a couple of Sales people if they made some adapter of some kind and everyone said not that they knew off, but of course I probably asked in such a way that they didn't understand what I was talking about and I didn't. I appreciate your help and will look into it and try it.
My wife died 6 years ago and some of her final final days before she got sick where on there is the reason I would really like to get them if I can and the last time (when I was working) I had some computer work done the guy charged me $80 an hr and worked for 4 hrs and never solved the problem, but charged me $320. so I'm terrified to take it to the Geek Squad or somewhere, so I appreciate your help very much, thank you again

Once you get these photos recovered. It might be a good idea to put them on a CD or DVD depending on how much space they take up. Maybe even make an extra copy or two and put one in a very safe place. Blank CDs and DVDs are pretty cheap these days, and if you have a fairly recent version of Windows, it will include a little program to do this. It should pop up as a choice when you put a blank disk in the drive.

 

[Dwalt]

Once you get these photos recovered. It might be a good idea to put them on a CD or DVD depending on how much space they take up. Maybe even make an extra copy or two and put one in a very safe place. Blank CDs and DVDs are pretty cheap these days, and if you have a fairly recent version of Windows, it will include a little program to do this. It should pop up as a choice when you put a blank disk in the drive.

Again I appreciate all your help, but being a novice I'll let my Daughter do that after I purchase the product you reccomended, btw I don't think it would make any difference (and I am again showing my ignorance of computers) but my other laptop was operating with Windows XP, will that cause any problems with the files or transferring them to my new laptop?

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

The operating system on the hard drive that was in the old computer will not affect your new computers ability to read the data on the disk. Be advised when you are accessing the data on that old HDD that you may have to go into many folders to find the pictures. It initially will not be as easy as clicking on “my pictures”. You will need to find the directory that you saved the files to. It will be something like windows/users/”your user name”/my pictures. If you know what the file types that your pictures and video (if you had any) where you can search for the file types using “*.jpg” without quotes in the search box. Typical photo and video file types to search for are: Photo .jpg and .bmp, Video .mov and .avi.

 

[Dwalt]

The operating system on the hard drive that was in the old computer will not affect your new computers ability to read the data on the disk. Be advised when you are accessing the data on that old HDD that you may have to go into many folders to find the pictures. It initially will not be as easy as clicking on “my pictures”. You will need to find the directory that you saved the files to. It will be something like windows/users/”your user name”/my pictures. If you know what the file types that your pictures and video (if you had any) where you can search for the file types using “*.jpg” without quotes in the search box. Typical photo and video file types to search for are: Photo .jpg and .bmp, Video .mov and .avi.

Thank you for your assistance, everyone has been so helpful and kind