Question On Disk Drives

[david96]

I have an Acer disk drive which has XP installed however the motherboard failed on the computer. There are files on this drive which I would like to access and copy.Can this drive be interchanged with another computer? Anyone have any ideas on this problem as it must occur quite often.

[Crossy]

No problem, drop the drive into an external drive case and away you go

[johnnymoretti]

Yes, more likely than not, you can remove the internal hard drive and literally plug it into another computer. In fact, sometimes a computer will have a wiring harness that will accomodate two hard drives (one as the Master, the other a Slave) and you can plug it into that one. If your buddy has a computer, see if you can plug it into that one. Take the original driver disks with you in case you need to install them so the new computer will recognize your old hard drive.

Alternatively, you could remove your hard drive yourself (google self-helps on this...its easier than you think) and take the hard drive to a computer store and have them remove the files and burn them onto a DVD disc. You can put them on a new computer later. If you have files that you want to be kept personal, then this could be a risk.

Hope this helps.

Johnny

[nikster]

No problem, drop the drive into an external drive case and away you go

Yes, this is the easiest way to do it - I have done it many times.

If you are shy to open up your laptop, just go to the computer store of your choice, buy a "box" (the Thai name for external case) for the hard disk, and tell them to take the drive out of your laptop and put it in the box for you. That way you also make sure you get the correct box - there are two standards for internal drives, SATA (new) and ATA (older) - you have to get the box for the correct one. The people in the store will assist you with that too.

The box costs between 300 and 600 baht and has a USB connection.

Alternatively, make sure to get the correct box, then let the Acer service center install it for you. It really only takes two minutes and a screwdriver for most laptops. I have done it to my Acer before.

And once you have it, do yourself a favor and get an external backup drive and do regular backups. Hard disks die, it's a fact of life. I have had 3 failures over the last 2 years.

[edit for bad spelling]

Edited July 20, 2007 by nikster

[ajarnmark]

Yes, more likely than not, you can remove the internal hard drive and literally plug it into another computer. In fact, sometimes a computer will have a wiring harness that will accomodate two hard drives (one as the Master, the other a Slave) and you can plug it into that one. If your buddy has a computer, see if you can plug it into that one. Take the original driver disks with you in case you need to install them so the new computer will recognize your old hard drive.

Alternatively, you could remove your hard drive yourself (google self-helps on this...its easier than you think) and take the hard drive to a computer store and have them remove the files and burn them onto a DVD disc. You can put them on a new computer later. If you have files that you want to be kept personal, then this could be a risk.

Hope this helps.

Johnny

In my 19 years of computer usage, I have never ever thought of having HDD driver. Can u enlighten us more?

Edited July 20, 2007 by ajarnmark

[david96]

The drive is a Seagate ST340015A for Acer OEM equipment, this is why it may not work on another computer.

[Firefoxx]

Harddrives, at least modern IDE and SATA hard drives, are universal. As long as the interface is right and the bios recognizes it (usually does, unless it's a really old bios or drive), then there will be no compatibility problems. The only gotcha is when you're using RAID configurations.

The drive will work on practically any other modern computer with the proper interface. No drivers needed. It's even simpler with an external drive case, since that's plug and play.

[Crossy]

The drive is a Seagate ST340015A for Acer OEM equipment, this is why it may not work on another computer.

Should be no problem, the ST340015A is a regular 3.5" PATA (IDE) drive. Just because it's marked as "Acer OEM" doesn't mean the guts are any different, should be just fine in a 3.5" external IDE drive box

[think_too_mut]

Should be no problem, the ST340015A is a regular 3.5" PATA (IDE) drive. Just because it's marked as "Acer OEM" doesn't mean the guts are any different, should be just fine in a 3.5" external IDE drive box

That means the drive microcode has been modified by (or for) Acer for whatever they expect the drive to do that vanilla ones don't.

[Crossy]

Should be no problem, the ST340015A is a regular 3.5" PATA (IDE) drive. Just because it's marked as "Acer OEM" doesn't mean the guts are any different, should be just fine in a 3.5" external IDE drive box

That means the drive microcode has been modified by (or for) Acer for whatever they expect the drive to do that vanilla ones don't.

True, but it's still highly likely to work OK in another machine / box. I've had a few (admitedly not Acer) OEM drives, all have behaved as expected

Of course the acid test will be when our OP gets back to us stating that it did (or didn't) work as we expected.

Edited July 20, 2007 by Crossy

[david96]

Thanks for the info,I will get a 3.5 IDE enclosure and connect to a USB port on a Compac Presario SR1030AN and see what happens. Will let you know the result.

My main computer is an Acer SA90 with Vista Home. The last two were XP.

[Tywais]

Should be no problem, the ST340015A is a regular 3.5" PATA (IDE) drive. Just because it's marked as "Acer OEM" doesn't mean the guts are any different, should be just fine in a 3.5" external IDE drive box

That means the drive microcode has been modified by (or for) Acer for whatever they expect the drive to do that vanilla ones don't.

I believe it more likely means a batch order made specifically for Acer and branded rather then special coding (AFAIK).