Hard Drive Salvage Success

[Jon Light (deceased)]

My desktop Windows 10 computer got fried last week -- probably a power surge, probably the power supply in the tower. It simply would not start....was just dead in the water.
I've learned how to do a lot of things on a computer since I got my Win95. But learning about computers has not been one of them. And it's not going to be.

I had 95% of my files backed up so I was in pretty decent shape. Considering that you can buy refurb units for $150 with acceptable specs for general browsing, it wasn't worth it to me to bring it to a repair shop....BUT....if I could get hold of those last 5% of the files that I hadn't yet backed up, it would be swell. (There's a long story as to why I wasn't automatically backing things up, but...I wasn't).

So, with my new refurb in hand, I bought this product, removed the SATA hard drive from the dead unit and to my amazement it worked! It seemed worth throwing 20 bux at the problem but I really had low expectations. By golly, I got it all back. A rare win.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0969H82M2?ps ... ct_details

[Jim Fogle]

Nice find and a great outcome.

It is ridiculous how inexpensive computer adapters and convertors are. Electronic based test equipment too.

You may never use the adapter again but it has already paid for itself.

[Jon Light (deceased)]

It felt 50/50 like I was throwing away the money but for a $20 gamble, those odds seemed good enough.
I always assumed that a drive was nothing without motherboards and BIOS's and other things that I'll never know what they even are. I had no idea that a drive could run, standalone like this. I could even continue to use it as an external drive now, something I'll consider.

The only thing about this process that was the least bit difficult was just me making it difficult by not understanding the instructions and trying to figure out how to fit an accessory cable that my type of drive did not even need, I finally realized.

Obviously a corrupted drive would have been a different story. But there was every indication that the problem was something else and I was right.

[Lee Baucum]

I have two of those, which I used on the hard drives from two old pooped out Dell desktop computers.

So glad we have a tech savvy son!

~Lee

[Jon Light (deceased)]

I don't know WHAT I was thinking, not having kids.

[Dale Rottacker]

I don't know WHAT I was thinking, not having kids.

No KIDS? ... Who packs your gear???

Would what you did work with Mac as well?

[Jon Light (deceased)]

Would what you did work with Mac as well?

You know the bumper sticker "I'm lost too -- don't follow me" ? That would apply here.
But -- the literature with this thing says

Compatible systems: Windows7/8/10/Vista/XP; MacOS 9/10

The interface to the destination computer is USB .

[Mike Neer]

Jon, I also have one of these and was able to salvage much stuff from a dying drive. However, I have lost a few drives in the past as unrecoverable--one I even sent out to a pro who could do nothing with it.

[Jon Light (deceased)]

My situation was that a household power deviation fried the computer and it would not start up. I mean, the start button was dead. It was an older rig that had been running slower & slower so rather than invest in repairing it, replacement was a good option. But there had been no signs that the drive had been failing so it seemed like a worthwhile bet to throw $20 at this recovery doodad. I was still skeptical that something could be this easy, hence my celebration that I had won this one.
Your post, Mike, will serve to remind me that hard drive failure is still a thing.

[Lee Baucum]

Our tech savvy daughter backs up her data to some mystical place called the fog, or haze, something like that.

~Lee

[Jon Light (deceased)]

They told me of an uncloudy day.
Then they warned me to back up everything.
I'm still sorting things out.

[Bill Ford]

$11.38 free shipping, just ordered one. BF

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266726207995?m ... 01&mkevt=1

[Jon Light (deceased)]

Looks like the same animal. No change in my opinion of this thing. It totally worked. Specifically, my issue had nothing to do with a problem with the hard drive. It was power supply or mother board or something. So I don't know if this would have worked if my drive was starting to go south. But the beauty is that the investment is low enough to be worth taking the chance.