When computer technology advances, I don’t simply move on. I’m known for keeping old, functioning computer gear for years.
In the case of my original laptop – a 2004 Compaq I’ll affectionately call “The Brick” – the gear itself hasn’t quite gone out of fashion. I recently doubled its RAM to 2 Gb and the installed Windows XP 64bit still delivers some good performance.
Not only do I like “The Brick” for its sturdy construction and sheer weight, but it has a tall, non-reflective wide screen. When I shopped for a new laptop early this year, every single model had a reflective screen; I ended up buying a lightweight SONY VAIO that shines like a mirror when sunlight hits it.
Back to “The Brick”. As the old faithful alternative to my main box, “The Brick” worked particularly well, even gained a secondary partition with Ubuntu Linux along the way.
But I never expected to wake up one morning and find a “black screen of hardware death” on its screen, the drive spinning with the sound of a lawnmower cutting through an Amazonian weed forest.
The drive was unbootable, spinning on its axis all while screeching. On it were several hundred indispensable family photos, that I had never thought of backing up to another medium. Somehow, due to the non-continuous use of “The Brick”, I foolishly believed that the hard drive would outlast the OS installed on it, but Bill Gates had to prove me wrong.
I searched for data restoration services; each and every one of them offered to do the job for no less than $1,000 – the cost would rise to $1,500 if certain mechanical issues were involved. Although one cannot put a price on hundreds of family photos, tossing a grand plus out of the window didn’t seem like the last option I should have.
Upon attempting to boot, the drive took a lot of stress, so I wondered how it’d behave as a secondary drive. Lo and behold, I searched on Amazon.com for hardware cases that’d allow me to plug the laptop drive to my main box as an external device.
After some research, I decided against the generic drive cases, as most of them have no power supply of their own, relying completely on USB power and also they are specific to the type of one’s drive; in my case, an old 80Gb PATA made by Toshiba.
Further research took me to this wonderful multi-function connector that cost $19.99 and free ground shipping. The device supports 2.5″ (laptop) and 3.5″ drives, both IDE/PATA and SATA connectors and it came in a nice box with all the necessary cables and connectors. Quite possibly, the best item I’ve received this year with a Made in China stamp on it.
The manufacturer can be found at Sabrent.com
After plugging the adapter into the mains, I connected the drive to its power supply. The drive chirped rather pleasantly; the USB 2.0 cable was connected to my main box and sure enough, the drive was seen by Windows and everything was found in place, fully intact.
I backed up all the photos and other files that I had forgotten they existed; overall a great investment that saved me several thousand dollars and a whole lot of stress.
A must-have gadget to be used as the last resort before emptying your bank account in order to hand the drive over to expensive data recovery services!
Thats very dangerous advice.
Sometimes it can make thigs much worse.
Sure sometimes works and save you money, but also can destroy drive more and at end you have to pay more.
Zoran
I love stuff like this !
Initiative pays huh, a true domainer, why pay $1000s when you sorted it for under $20
Lol I like the “Brick” bit too !
Made In China? I wont purchase it.
Theo,
I’m the same when it comes to upgrading my gadgets. I just recently put together a new PC that replaced one that was about 10 years old (and my primary box).
Backups are super important, and I’ve learned it the hard way. You’re very fortunate to have been able to recover your files.
Thanks for sharing your story. I’ll add to it that if you want to move files off a SATA drive you can also go with “Thermaltake BlacX” which supports both SATA 3.5 and 2.5 (laptop drives) and it’s pretty cool because you just pop the drive on top of it.
Luc
Dotmainer – my experience is factual, anyone facing similar circumstances should decide on their own.
Andy – the Brick has been hauled to TRAFFIC a couple of years ago and at the time a Sedo employee sitting next to me used an Apple macbook Air – the Brick is like 5 macbook Air’s stacked on top of eachother 😀
LisaWeb: 😛
Luc – I’ve tried the cradle/dock hardware before for SATA drives; this gadget can be used on IDE drives as well, hence my purchase.
Good post. I have been working with computers (software) for decades, and in almost all cases the approach you are suggesting works. I have personally had a number of computers “die”. I just pull the disk out, plug it into another computer as a secondary drive, copy stuff over, done.
Good call on using old equipment too. In most cases the old computer is fine. Some of the most demanding applications by users are video games, and the big box stores convince users to buy more computer than they need. I don’t do games… ever, so the old stuff works fine. Most people think that their “computer is slow” and they need a new one. A fast computer will not speed up a slow net connection, or the myriad other causes of performance problems (too much crap on the computer).
Of course an ounce of prevention (backups) goes a long way.
Good post.
I agree, old gold is by far the better 😉
npcomplete – Indeed, old gear holds for years, especially if you move away from Windows. Try Ubuntu linux on any kind of old laptop or desktop, you’ll be surprised.
My GF’s hdd shit out and it only cost us $100 from a reputable company to recover all the files off the 250gb hdd. Then again, I am in China.
I went to their office and watched the tools they used. All they do is open the drive and swap the discs into a new chassis with working motor and head that reads.
The engineer who worked on the hdd even made scruffing remarks about how cheap their fees are compared to US or other countries.
But yeah, I learned my lesson about backups a long time ago. I got me an HP Server that auto backups and restores. Also that online backup service as a secondary. On top, Windows 7 backup. Then the monthly “manual” backup in case any of these crash, get lost or get corrupted.