How to overwrite data from a laptop hard drive. How to extract information from the hard drive of a failed computer

To increase the degree of safety of information, it is recommended to copy important files to other media. There are several ways to transfer data from one hard drive to another. Sometimes this requires two computers at once.

You will need

• - Crosshead screwdriver.

Instructions

The easiest way is to connect both hard drives to one stationary computer. Turn off your PC and open the system unit. Most often, this requires unscrewing 2 or 3 screws and removing the left side of the case. Explore the available connectors for connecting drives.

Select the required connector (IDE or SATA). Connect a second hard drive to it. Connect the power cable to the drive. Turn on your computer and hold down the Delete key. Wait for the BIOS menu to start.

Open the Boot Options tab and make sure that the boot will be done from your main hard drive. Change the boot options if necessary. Save BIOS settings and restart your computer. Wait for the operating system to finish starting.

Open the My Computer menu and select the first hard drive. Find the files you want to transfer to another hard drive. Select them with the left mouse button while holding down the Ctrl key. Now click on any selected file with the right mouse button and select "Copy".

Open another window of the "My Computer" menu and go to the list of folders of the second hard drive. Find the required directory, right-click on it and select "Paste". Wait until the files are copied. If you want to move the data, and not copy, then after selecting the desired files, select "Cut".

If a local area network is set up between your computers, you can move files without removing the hard drive. Create any folder on the second PC and right-click on it. Select "Sharing". Allow full access (read and write) to this directory.

On the second PC, press the Win + R keyboard shortcut and enter the command \ 101.10.15.1. The numbers represent the IP address of the network adapter of the second computer. After opening the list of available folders, select the newly created directory and copy the files you want to it.

Advice was added on September 6, 2011 Advice 2: How to transfer information from a hard drive To move or copy information from one hard drive to another medium, you can use either a fully automatic method using special programs, or a semi-automatic way using the standard file manager "Explorer".

You will need

• - operating system of the Windows family;
• - Paragon Partition Manager software.

Instructions

The easiest way to copy information from one hard disk to another is the usual duplication of information using "Explorer" or any other file manager. To perform such an operation, it is enough to select all the folders and files on the source disk and press the Ctrl + C (Ctrl + Insert) key combination to copy. On the destination disc, press the Ctrl + V (Shift + Insert) key combination to insert.

You can do a little differently and use a special program, for example, Paragon Partition Manager. It is assumed in advance that the target hard drive must be the same size or larger than the source hard drive.

After installing the program, launch it. In the "Quick Launch Menu" window that opens, click the "Advanced User Mode" button.

In the main window of the program, click the top menu "Wizards" and select "Copy hard disk" from the list. In the "Welcome to the Copy Hard Disk Wizard" window that opens, click the "Next" button.

In the next window "Select source hard drive for copying", select the drive from which you will copy the materials, and click the "Next" button.

In the Select target hard disk window, select the disk to which the materials will be copied (destination disk) and click the Next button.

In the next window "Setting copy parameters" check the box next to the item "Direct access to hard disk sectors". Then click the Next button.

A window will appear in front of you, which will display the process of copying files and folders. To go to the next window, click the "Next" and then "Finish" buttons.

In the main window of the program, click the top menu "Changes" and select "Apply Changes". Answer positively to the request of the program about the changes made by clicking the "Yes" button. Then the final copy of the data of the selected disk will take place.

By installing this software on another computer, you can recover data saved as a hard disk image.

How to download information from your hard drive - printable version

In this article we will take a look, before it is restored to work.

If your computer has never failed, this does not mean that it will always be so. At the most inopportune moment, he can surprise you - respond with a blue screen of death, or even worse - just a black lifeless screen.

The reasons for the failure of a computer can be of two types:

• Windows problems... Problems of this type can be attributed to errors in drivers, computer viruses, or incorrect settings of the operating system itself. In this case, you can easily boot from removable media and open your files.
• Hardware problems... Almost any part of the computer that is out of order interferes with its normal operation. Most often, there are problems with memory, hard drive, a little less often other nodes fail (power supply, video card, etc.). In this case, to access the information, you should remove the hard drive and connect it to another, working computer.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to recover data from a deceased computer - if a hard drive is out of order, especially an SSD drive, the likelihood of successful data recovery is drastically reduced. It is highly advisable, in case of a hard disk failure, to back up - to another hard disk, or to the "cloud".

Method 1. Booting from Live disk

This procedure is relevant if the computer is working, but for some reason the boot system of the operating system, or the operating system itself, "crashed". In this case, you can boot from a Linux or Windows live disk, and then copy the necessary files to removable media, which you can work with on another computer.

If you managed to boot your computer from a live disk - then you have no problems with hardware in your computer - in this case you should connect an external "pocket" and copy the necessary information to it.

The easiest way is a live disk with Linux, for example Ubuntu, the image of which is enough to download and burn to a CD or USB flash drive. Also, if you have sufficient knowledge of computers, you can create a live assembly of Windows yourself. Additionally, there is a way to copy files from a deceased computer by booting from the Windows installation disc.

The good thing about copying files using a live disk is that even if the hard disk dies, because of which the operating system refuses to boot, you can still extract most of the information from it.

Method 2. Remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer

If the computer does not boot from a live disk, then most likely one of the computer components is out of order, for example, the motherboard, memory module, video card, etc. In this case, there is only one option - to remove the hard drive, connect it to a working computer and merge all important information from it.

Note: Of course, this method will not help if the hard drive shows no signs of life. If it still has problems, but it works, try to copy all the important information from it as quickly as possible, until it is completely out of order.

Note: There are models of laptops and computers in which, when you remove the hard drive, you can lose the gananty. Although, in most cases, you should not have problems with the warranty - most often computers fail, which have already expired.

The sequence of steps to remove the computer hard drive:

1. Disconnect the power supply. If it's a notebook, also remove the battery from it.
2. Open the computer case and locate the hard drive. In the laptop, unscrew the cover under which the hard drive is located. Most often it is marked with a special hard disk icon.
3. Disconnect the wires, remove the 4 screws that secure the hard drive. In the laptop, unscrew the retaining screw.
4. Remove the hard drive.

Connecting the hard drive to another computer

To connect the hard drive to another computer, you can use an external USB pocket, or install it inside another computer. With the first option, everything is simple, but with the second it is a little more complicated:

1. Disconnect the power supply.
2. Open the computer case.
3. Install the hard drive. If you are connecting a hard drive removed from a laptop to a workstation, use the hard drive mounts or place it on a stable surface (be sure to use an anti-static bag)
4. Connect the hard drive wires to the motherboard.
5. Turn on the computer, wait until the operating system boots from its native hard drive.
6. Get started with your files.

In principle, there is nothing complicated in the described procedure. It is a little more complicated with laptops, especially models that do not have a hard drive ejecting option. If you are not confident in your abilities, ask for help from a specialist who will remove the hard drive, restore your files, as well as find out the cause of the failure of the computer and, if possible, fix it.

So that there is no reason to think how to extract information from the hard drive of a failed computer, you should back up regularly. If there is a backup copy, the failed hard drive can be simply thrown out, bought a new one and restored files to it from the backup. You, or an IT specialist, of course, will have to tinker with reinstalling the operating system, but this is still better than the risk of irrevocably losing important information.

In this article, we will look at programs that will help you quickly clone (copy) a hard drive to another hard drive. Such knowledge will be useful to any owner of a computer or laptop.

Upgrading a computer or laptop often involves replacing the hard drive with a larger and faster one. At the same time, users are faced with the problem of transferring information from the installed media to a new one, because in order to reinstall the system, drivers and necessary applications, they have to spend a lot of time.

It is much easier in this situation to carry out full or partial cloning of an HDD or SSD using one of the specialized programs. Setting up and working with them does not require special knowledge, and the time spent on the cloning process is an order of magnitude less than on OS installation and configuration.

Copying a hard disk in Acronis True Image

One of the functions of this useful program is disk cloning, which, by the way, can be configured very finely depending on the tasks of a particular user. To avoid possible errors during the operation, you do not need to use Acronis True Image under a running OS - it is recommended to run the application using a bootable disk. Therefore, you will need the Acronis BootCD / DVD distribution kit, which will need to be unpacked to DVD or even to a USB flash drive, for example, using UltraISO, UNetbootin, etc.

After creating the bootable media, you can start cloning directly:

1. Boot from the drive created with Acronis BootCD / DVD.
2. In the main Acronis window, open the Tools and Utilities section.

   

3. On the right in the list of utilities, go to "Disk cloning" and select the automatic mode of the process. Click Next.
4. Select the original disk with the copied information with the left click, click "Next".

   

5. In the next window, select the target disk to which you plan to clone the old HDD. The target drive can be either an HDD or a high-speed modern SSD.

   

If copying to a solid-state drive, then it will be usual for its capacity to be less than the connected HDD. In this case, Acronis True Image will display a message about the need to exclude some files and folders from the cloning process.

Usually, only the system is transferred to the SSD, therefore, for exact copying, you can select only the main partition of the disk (usually "C"), excluding partitions or individual files with unnecessary information from the process. If the size of the disk allows you to clone the old drive completely, you can click "Next", after which the process of sector-by-sector low-level disk copying will start.

Note that the application is paid, but it is multifunctional, works very quickly and, as has been shown, has the ability to select data on the hard drive for transfer.

Using Paragon Hard Disk Manager App

This multifunctional application is only slightly inferior in popularity to the program described above. It is also convenient to use it to clone information on drives:

Like Acronis True Image, the considered application for reliable sector-by-sector data copying is better to run not from under Windows, but from a bootable storage device. You can create it in the program itself using a special rescue media creation wizard:

Note that Paragon Hard Disk Manager is also a paid application, but its functionality is no less than that of Acronis True Image. Both of them work with any disks and file systems, support Windows 8.1 and 10.

Cloning disks using EASEUS Disk Copy

This small application, unlike those discussed earlier, is completely free, but nevertheless it allows you to reliably clone hard disks, their individual partitions, and migrate the OS to various drives, including solid-state SSDs. The program is launched from a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, for which you need to download a free distribution kit for installation on the official website of the utility. After running the executable installation file, the wizard will offer a choice:

• install EASEUS Disk Copy on a USB stick,
• to an optical drive,
• export the ISO image of the utility to the computer disk.

A simple and quick option is to create a bootable USB flash drive, that is, the first one from the list.

In the next window, specify the disk to be copied and the drive to which the sector-by-sector information will be transferred. A definite drawback of the application is the lack of Russian localization.

After cloning a Windows 10 boot disk, sometimes the system may not boot. In this case:

If the error File: \ Boot \ BCD appears after booting, restore the Windows bootloader.

Cloning disks with Macrium Reflect

This is another small utility distributed free of charge. Its functionality includes cloning HDD and SSD, creating their full images, as well as images of individual partitions that can be used in the OS as virtual media. The installer can be obtained at the office. site of the application, when you start it, you need to specify the installation directory and select the "Free" license.

When you start Macrium Reflect for the first time, it will offer to create a bootable disk itself, with which you must agree, since cloning may be accompanied by errors when working in Windows environment. After starting the program:

1. Select the disk to clone in the main window.
2. Under the selected drive, click on the "Clone this disk" link and in the next window specify the drive to which you want to transfer the information.

Using Farstone RestoreIT Pro

This paid application is used to create backups of any information on disks, saving the current state of the system, and in case of unexpected failures, restoring it literally by pressing a single button.

The mechanism of work is that it overwrites the boot sector of the disk, adding itself to it, and also creates an additional logical disk to record all the information being backed up. In fact, Farstone RestoreIT Pro creates system restore points, and with its help you can roll back not only the entire disk, but also individual partitions.

You can activate and deactivate the application in the context menu, the latter is opened by clicking on the icon in the tray. This feature allows you to save system resources when there is confidence that its state is not changing at the moment. Farstone RestoreIT Pro can create bootable CDs / DVDs or even floppy disks, with which you can not only restore a disk when it fails to boot normally, but also the MBR with a partition table.

How to quickly copy a hard drive to another hard drive (HDD / SSD)

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Is your laptop suddenly out of order? You cannot boot Windows, or even run the recovery system from a CD. It is quite possible that the laptop is damaged so much that it is impossible to boot Windows. What to do in such a situation to restore necessary files?

There are two possible solutions to this problem, and we'll cover both. The first thing you need to do is remove the hard drive from the laptop... While this may seem like a daunting task, it is actually a fairly straightforward process. At the bottom of your laptop, you can see the plastic case that covers your hard drive and RAM. Some laptop models have pictograms showing where the hard drive and memory slot cover are located. The hard drive is usually located under a large rectangular cover.

Open the cover with a Phillips screwdriver. Usually the cover is held in place by 1 or 2 screws. After you lift the cover you will see a 2.5 ”portable hard drive. The hard drive is connected to the motherboard via 2.5 IDE or SATA interface... Open all the mounting screws that hold the hard drive and simply pull it out of the connectors.

The next thing to do is determine the type of hard drive. This can be done using the image below, which shows the difference between IDE and SATA drives.

HDD 2.5 "IDE (PATA) interface

HDD 2.5 "SATA interface

After you have determined the type of your hard drive, you can recover data using one of two methods:

1. You can connect your laptop hard drive during external USB enclosure"pocket" as shown below. These adapters are available for both IDE and SATA interfaces. They cost about 80-100 UAH. This is the easiest way to recover data as a laptop hard drive will work like external usb drive... Just insert the hard drive into the adapter case and connect it to any USB port on another computer. The drive will be detected as a normal drive. Open "My Computer" in Windows and you will see the familiar disk partitions that you had in your laptop. Just copy the necessary files or folders from the laptop hard drive to the hard drive of the computer. This completes the restoration of your data.

USB to SATA 2.5 adapter

2. This method assumes that you have access to a desktop PC that has an IDE or SATA interface. If your laptop has hard disk with SATA interface, then it can be connected directly to the SATA connector of the computer. SATA connector for data transfer and power connector, exactly the same as on a laptop and a system unit.

Recovering data from a portable drive is a very simple procedure like connecting a USB flash drive to a computer.

Recover files from HDD IDE 2.5

If your laptop has a 2.5 "IDE" hard drive, you will need a special cable to convert your 2.5 "IDE to 3.5" connection.

Ide 2.5 to 3.5 adapter

Connect the 2.5 IDE side of the cable to the hard drive from the laptop and the 3.5 side to the free IDE connector on your computer... After the hard drive from the laptop is connected to the motherboard of the computer, you can turn on the PC and you will see that a new hard drive has been detected. After that, this disk can be viewed and all data can be transferred to another partition.

If important information is stored on a non-working PC, it can be easily removed from the hard drive to a new medium and saved.

Separate disc

If the hard drive is stored separately from the PC, then the data from it can be copied to the media using adapter or special pocket.

In the first case, you need to purchase USB-SATA / IDE adapter, which connects to the hard drive and to the PC at the same time and allows you to copy information. The adapter is compact and easy to use, allowing you to work with SATA and IDE hard drives.

Hard drive to USB adapter

The second method involves the acquisition special pocket(box with connectors), which fits the hard drive. With the built-in SATA controller, it allows you to use the hard drive as a USB flash drive, connecting with a USB cable to a PC.

External disc pocket

For frequent work with different hard drives, it is better to buy a USB-IDE / SATA adapter, since it can work with two interfaces. A pocket is ideal for working with one permanent hard drive.

Disk in a non-working PC

If the OS refuses to boot, you can save the data, because despite software glitches, the information remains intact. But to transfer files, you need an external drive or flash drive.

Microsoft - MSDaRT

Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset is a program that allows boot the system from removable media, even with total damage to files. The user gets access to NTFS volumes, registry and drivers, and this is enough to copy information. You can download it from the official website of the company.

The utility must be downloaded to the media and run on a non-working device, after which:

The process is extremely simple, so an ordinary user can also cope with it.

Live CD

A system with a liveCD is suitable for any OS, using the Dr.Web LiveDisk recovery disk. After downloading, you need to run on your PC from the media:

The program with the Dr.Web interface works on the same principle as the previous one.

Connecting the drive to another computer

To connect the hard drive to a working PC, you need to remove it from the old computer:

After removing the hard drive, you need to connect it using the standard methods indicated in the first paragraph.

Cloning

Cloning is a process that allows you to transfer a complete removable hard drive to a connected to a PC the whole structure of sections built-in hard drive along with all data and settings. It is done using the same type of special programs, but the procedure is the same:

After the operation is completed, all data from the selected disk will be copied to the removable one along with partitions and data. After that it will be possible run OS from a removable hard drive.

Acronis TrueImage Utility

Extracting data from laptop hard drive

The difficulty of working with a laptop is that getting its hard drive is a little more difficult due to the monolithic structure:

The detached hard drive can then be connected to any PC using an adapter or pocket. You just need to choose the right pocket (pay attention to the SATA or IDE interface).

Transfer files between PC and laptop

Data can be copied between different devices: from a hard drive to a PC or laptop, from a PC to a removable disk, etc. To copy data using an external storage device, you must:

Another way to transfer files is creation of a local network using a cable. If the device has Gigabit Ethernet adapters with MDI-X - a regular cable will do, otherwise you need to purchase a cross-over cable:

You can copy data and via Wi-Fi:

The choice of a specific method of transferring information always depends on the initial conditions: whether the device works, whether there are additional tools for work, etc.

In both the first and second methods, you can find the "Network" link in the explorer, expand it and you will be able to see all available computers on the network. By default, all folders on a PC are closed from access from the network. To fix this you need to: