Jump to content

Photo

Reading a SATA Laptop HDD on my Desktop?


  • Please log in to reply
8 replies to this topic

#1 Anthus

Anthus

    Lord of Liquids

  • Members
  • Location:Ohio

Posted 29 January 2017 - 07:08 PM

I can't remember my Tom's Hardware login, and I'm too lazy to make another account there for one question, so I'll ask here since this seems pretty simple.

 

I found an old laptop in my back closet the other day. I don't remember whose it was, or why I have it, but the screen is cracked on the little guy, and I'm just dying to know what's on this hard drive. I have a sneaking suspicion this was my old buddy's laptop, since I recall him breaking his screen, and being upset because he effectively lost all his music cause he's not very tech savvy (I'm no wizard either). It could also be yet another friend's from even longer ago, and it may contain out lost movie that we were making after being inspired by a BigZeef video around the time Brawl was coming out. It could also be my ex's, and I gotta git dem nudz.

 

So, onto the actual question here, I took the small HDD out, and plugged it into a SATA port on my desktop computer, and it isn't showing up, even after powering it back on, and restarting  it. I have not looked in the BIOS yet, and that is probably where the answer lies, but I want to know if there is anything I should do specifically in the BIOS to make it show up as a slave drive, and not try to boot from it, since I'm pretty sure it was the only hard drive in this laptop, therefore it has an OS on it. I am also wondering how I can view multiple partitions, if it has any.

 

I guess the real question is, are these smaller laptop HDDs even compatible with motherboards, that aren't from the laptop they were made for? It's a Toshiba, that's all I know. I can't see any other names, or model-make info, and, welp, no screen (and.. after some digging, no power cord either, heh)

 

Thanks!

 

This has been another shit-post quality post on the Computer board by Anthus.



#2 Timelord

Timelord

    The Timelord

  • Banned
  • Location:Prydon Academy

Posted 29 January 2017 - 07:56 PM

Buy an external SATA drive dock, eject the drive from your laptop, insert it into the drive dock, and connect the dock to your system.

 

I suggest making a CD or a pen Drive copy of Parted Magic too, for working with external media.


  • ShadowTiger and Anthus like this

#3 Anthus

Anthus

    Lord of Liquids

  • Members
  • Location:Ohio

Posted 29 January 2017 - 08:17 PM

Hm, that's what I was afraid of. I wanted to do it on the cheap. I will probably grab one of those docks in the next few days, since I need to go to Microcenter for some other stuff anyway. I was hoping there'd be some alternative, cause I don't want to shell out 20-30 bucks for something I'll literally be using only once (I just got back from vacation, so funds are a bit tighter than usual). I suppose it might not be a bad idea to have one on hand though, since you never know when you might need one.

 

The hard drive spins, and I can hear it 'working' but it simply won't show up. Is a dock really the only way? Thanks though. :)



#4 Saffith

Saffith

    IPv7 user

  • ZC Developers

Posted 29 January 2017 - 08:25 PM

There's likely to be some way to specify a disk to boot from. That might be selected in the BIOS setup, or it might mean pressing a different key on startup.
If you can connect the drive, I'd expect it to be compatible. There isn't a different SATA standard for laptops or anything like that.
  • Anthus likes this

#5 Timelord

Timelord

    The Timelord

  • Banned
  • Location:Prydon Academy

Posted 29 January 2017 - 10:01 PM

There's likely to be some way to specify a disk to boot from. That might be selected in the BIOS setup, or it might mean pressing a different key on startup.
If you can connect the drive, I'd expect it to be compatible. There isn't a different SATA standard for laptops or anything like that.

 

One thing I would warn about, is that Windows drives tend to dislike mounting if they are supposed to be boot drives, and you connect them otherwise. I've run into my fair-share of problems with NTFS, so, I would use Parted Magic, even if you connect it to the internal SATA bus.

 

This might be a windows security thing, trying to protect your data. Hard to say what Microsoft have done with NTFS of late.

 

Another, is that there are SATA standard differences. if the internal SATA bus is SATA2, and the drive for some reason cannot operate on SATA2, you are a bit out of luck. The connector itself is the same across the standard, but some devices do not support legacy adapters, which is idiotic, but true.

 

Another issue, is that the system may not be properly reading the partitions. I have that exact issue with a 1TB 2.5" SATA4 drive. I added extended parts in Linux, and somehow the write-out corrupted the partition table. Not a problem, you would think, but the internal SATA adapter fails to scan it, and locks into a read loop. An external enclosure typically solves most of those issues, and it is around fifteen to twenty quid for a decent one.

 

@Anthus: If you need an ISO of Parted Magic, I have some of the older ones, from before the author turned it into a paid subscription thing. They are GPL2 Linux distros, so there is no distribution issue with sharing them freely. The original author merely deleted them from the server, to try and capitalise on it; and while I don;t mind seeing him make a few quid, I also find it a bit wretched to see a monetised Linux distro out there.

 

That is not how Linux distros are intended to work. (You are supposed to monetise support, not downloads.) He could also have maintained the torrent, which did not impact his site bandwidth, to continue distributing the free one. Instead, he purged them, knowing full-well that his minor updates aren't something that most Linux users will pay to obtain, to coax people into paying him.

 

If the laptop itself can be made to boot, you can always connect it to the desktop with a 1000bT crossover cable, which would cost you a few pennies, and use a network bridge to handle data transfer between the two.


Edited by ZoriaRPG, 29 January 2017 - 10:06 PM.

  • Anthus likes this

#6 ShadowTiger

ShadowTiger

    The Doctor Is In

  • Members

Posted 30 January 2017 - 06:32 PM

Hiren's Boot CD has a copy of PartEd Magic, I believe. I use it plentifully. I keep Hirens on my USB Toolkit I take everywhere. It's got a bunch of cool stuff on it. Use "Rufus" to burn the ISO. Very convenient. Google for it. Easy to find.



and plugged it into a SATA port on my desktop computer, and it isn't showing up, even after powering it back on, and restarting it.

What I'd like to know is, and I apologize if it was mentioned already, if you removed your primary hard drive first, setting it aside, and plugged in the laptop drive instead as the only Hard Drive.
  • Anthus likes this

#7 Anthus

Anthus

    Lord of Liquids

  • Members
  • Location:Ohio

Posted 30 January 2017 - 06:51 PM

Thanks, Zoria, that was pretty informative. I haven't done anything else today with this, but, see below, since I think I was a bit unclear orginally.

 

What I'd like to know is, and I apologize if it was mentioned already, if you removed your primary hard drive first, setting it aside, and plugged in the laptop drive instead as the only Hard Drive.

 

Nah, the primary Hard drive is still in my computer. I don't want to boot from the latptop's drive, I just wanted to plug it in, and was hoping it'd show up like a regular external drive, but I'm thinking I have to tell the computer it is there in the BIOS since it's a real HDD and not  USB Plug in Play type of thing.. I have no desire to boot another Windows on my primary computer from another drive unless it is an emergency scenario. I should have been more clear initially. :P

 

The main reason I was asking about booting from it was cause I was concerned my computer might freak out if it "sees" two windows partitions, and it hasn't been set up correctly in the BIOS. I also completely forgot that you do have to manually select a drive to boot from, so there really is no problem there. It's just sitting in there connected to a SATA plug, and I haven't powered down my computer yet. I am going to clean the case again, and mess with it. It's kind of cumbersome to open my case with my current set-up lol.



#8 ShadowTiger

ShadowTiger

    The Doctor Is In

  • Members

Posted 30 January 2017 - 07:13 PM

What I would do is proceed with burning a copy of Fedora 23 (The one I use for my LiveCD) and only have the laptop Hard Drive connected to the desktop, and boot from the LiveCD and read it from there. I've never had a problem doing that. If it still doesn't show up, I'd wonder if there are other problems at hand.

Otherwise, those external SATA to USB adapters do work. A Docking station tends to work a lot better than the IDE/SATA to USB adapters that also require an additional power brick. I don't like those much. Then again, it's a laptop Hard Drive, so you can buy a SATA to USB 3.0 adapter. It includes the power aspect too. I haven't seen those fail as much. Really good to have regardless.

#9 Timelord

Timelord

    The Timelord

  • Banned
  • Location:Prydon Academy

Posted 01 February 2017 - 10:38 AM

What I would do is proceed with burning a copy of Fedora 23 (The one I use for my LiveCD) and only have the laptop Hard Drive connected to the desktop, and boot from the LiveCD and read it from there. I've never had a problem doing that. If it still doesn't show up, I'd wonder if there are other problems at hand.

Otherwise, those external SATA to USB adapters do work. A Docking station tends to work a lot better than the IDE/SATA to USB adapters that also require an additional power brick. I don't like those much. Then again, it's a laptop Hard Drive, so you can buy a SATA to USB 3.0 adapter. It includes the power aspect too. I haven't seen those fail as much. Really good to have regardless.

 

I have to disagree here. For a 2.5" drive, that you can't properly secure, a docking station is the only way to go. Do you want the drive flopping about like a wounded trout, or tucked neatly into a docking port that holds it snug*? The former allows for it to be shorted, connected improperly, or in motion while spinning up, that could result in damage, data loss, or worse.

 

The docking station is far more secure, does all that a cable-based adapter would do--those typically still require external power--works with multiple drive types, and is easily stabilised. (It isn't typically faster, in my experience, but it is much safer.)

 

The docking units can be bought on Amazon quite inexpensively, too.

 

 

Thanks, Zoria, that was pretty informative. I haven't done anything else today with this, but, see below, since I think I was a bit unclear orginally.

 

 

Nah, the primary Hard drive is still in my computer. I don't want to boot from the latptop's drive, I just wanted to plug it in, and was hoping it'd show up like a regular external drive, but I'm thinking I have to tell the computer it is there in the BIOS since it's a real HDD and not  USB Plug in Play type of thing.. I have no desire to boot another Windows on my primary computer from another drive unless it is an emergency scenario. I should have been more clear initially. :P

 

The main reason I was asking about booting from it was cause I was concerned my computer might freak out if it "sees" two windows partitions, and it hasn't been set up correctly in the BIOS. I also completely forgot that you do have to manually select a drive to boot from, so there really is no problem there. It's just sitting in there connected to a SATA plug, and I haven't powered down my computer yet. I am going to clean the case again, and mess with it. It's kind of cumbersome to open my case with my current set-up lol.

 

What I was saying earlier still applies. Windows doe snot tend to like popping another NTFS boot drive in a system, and doing read-write to it. It might not mount for any variety of reasons, including being a SATA type that your internal controller does not support, having boot sector or filesystem layout errors, or damage; the moon not aligning with Venus, or some kind of system-specific protection.

 

The reason that I use Parted magic, and a USB dock, is two-fold.

 

First, Parted Magic will do read-write to just about every filesystem, mounting it, and it includes a suite of data recovery tools.

Second, the USB dock will bypass some BIOS things that want to read and determine boot sectors and other device information on init. If the device has issues with its partitions, or other problems, the dock will bypass many of these.

 

THis is because the SATA adapter on a dock is a 'dumb' adapter. it does not determine drive health, perform diagnostics, or try to configure boot values in the way that the full SATA adapter bus wants to do; so drives that have problems mounting can be mounted more readily this way. The USB/FW bus is read by Linux, and the dumb adapter converts that to SATA via its host controller.

 

Honestly, this is many times easier to do than trying to configure your system internally, and above all, it doesn;t risk data loss. By fiddling with your BIOS/Firmware settings and forcing the device to mount, you gamble with its safety, and I would not advise it.

 

Even if you do manage to safely mount it, the stress, and the time involved outweigh the cost of a USB dock (fifteen quid here, maybe twenty to twenty-five US dollars), and the time and costs to make a Parted magic boot device, which are: Either a blank DVD and half an hour to download an image and burn it; or less than five quid for an 8GB USB fen drive and about twenty minutes to download the image and use Unetbootn to make a boot drive with it.
 

I prefer the USB method, because the device is faster, making boot time quicker, seek time faster, and disc operations faster; plus, it works on any system with a USB controller, even if it lacks a CD/DvD drive. That said, i would make both as it is always good to havbe a disc on hand. The Parted Magic suite is something that everyone should have to hand. In particular, the utility 'Test Disk' is very helpful.

 

Many times, I have had SD cards throw r/w errors, that can be cleared by rewriting their primary sectors. I often need to do data copying/device cloning, which PM can do, and it also handles data recovery, disc partition set-up--including easy ways to make multi-boot systems--and disc back-ups including full disc imaging using Clonezilla.

 

It is assuredly a must-have utility, and although i do not like the way that the author of the distro handles its quasi-commercialisation, I do not object to giving him some money. I just won't do it purely to download the tools, as he didn't write any of them. They are all open source utilities, and he merely assembled a Linux distro that fits on a CD with all of the tools.

 

It is also a usable boot OS. i have in fact, installed it on a hard disc, and used it for a dedicated data recovery, cloning, and drive testing station. It comes with a TCP/IP stack, and Firefox, along with other basic programmes that can be used as a full host OS, if needed, so for an emergency boot suite, it is exceptional. You can for example, browse the web, and watch YouTube videos, whilst performing disc operations.

 

*I had as a typo, 'snog', which is also appropriate in a perverse sort of way.


  • Anthus likes this


0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users