My laptop up-and-died today with ~5 gigs of valuable GIS and hydrology work on it. I desperately need to recover these data. I've got the HDD in an antistatic bag next to me and I'm wondering if there isnt an adapter utility to plug the li'l SOB into a 40-pin desktop cable so I can retrieve the data?

Right now, the data are orders of magnitude more important than the machine (and cash is a limitation) so dont worry about the computer - I simply need to know how to get my LIDAR data back.

I am so seriously screwed if I can't recover this work because there is no way I can replace it in time.

anybody have any hints?

Thanks in advance
freakin' out gkd

Hello,

You are in trouble. Question is if the hard drive had a mechanical failure, or a logical/OS failure.

If you heard grinding, clicking, creepy noises, you are probably having a mechanical failure. Get the pocket book, and start looking at a service to recover your data in a clean room. Off the top of my head, $400 or so.

If you are looking at a software failure (cannot boot windows/linux/mac, blue screen, no screen), then there is a chance that you can slave the (assuming IDE) drive inside of another computer. You will have to track down a converter, and go inside the machine, and wire it in. Will need to probably move a jumper from master to slave. But if this works, there is a chance that you can copy the files from one drive to another.

In the end though, you have learned the motivation of keeping backups. Burn a disk once a week. Or have a server, and have that burn on a weekly basis. Some of us backup people go so far as tapes at the home system, or do what I do... have my servers backup to hard disks on other servers.

Good luck with your situation,

Christian

There are adapters sold that break out the laptop-drive connector (which includes both power and signal) to a 40-pin IDE-connector-plus-power-Molex. Most well-stocked computer stores have them; I have seen them for as little as $6 and as much as $15.

Good luck!

HA!

yes, thank you both!

first, its a mainboard malfunction or power supply - i think. im not too familliar with the inards of laptops. the drive was working perfectly right before the power shut off. and now it wont turn back on and I can barely get the power adapter into its socket (it was HOT).

I did find the 2.5 to 3.5 inch converters online for 30 bucks and promply called the nearest parts store and had them hold one for $9.99. I'll pick it up tomorrow.

I do back up my data weekly, but this is the 5 gigs of data that i was working on this week, which takes too much time to burn a CD of before processing it (the final filesets are much smaller).

Thanks again!
gkd