Important HD question

[24usedtorock]

Okay, this might not be that important to you, but it is to me.

I recently had my PC crash and for all intents and purposes die. I do believe the HD should be fine on it though.

1. How can I salvage its content and make use of it via my Macbook Pro?
2. Can I do this without using boot camp and simply transfer the photos, etc?
3. Do I need to buy an external enclosure and hook up with a wire, if so any particular that you suggest?

 

[iBookG4user]

Was the PC a laptop or a desktop? Do you have the model name? (or know whether it used IDE or SATA hard drives?)

 

[24usedtorock]

Was the PC a laptop or a desktop? Do you have the model name? (or know whether it used IDE or SATA hard drives?)

It was a desktop. I believe it was just a standard seagate 500gb drive, it was SATA.

 

[iBookG4user]

It was a desktop. I believe it was just a standard seagate 500gb drive, it was SATA.

Then any 3.5" SATA external hard drive will work. USB will be the cheapest.

 

[gr8tfly]

You can buy an external enclosure, or one of the bare USB > SATA adapter cables/docks. I have several brands of enclosures (Roswill, Cooldrive (I think...), a 2.5/3.5" dock I bought from geeks.com, and a Newer (OWC) adapter cable set. Newegg.com has a good selection of enclosures.

OS-X can natively read both FAT32 and NTFS, so there shouldn't be any problem accessing the data.

 

[SDAVE]

Any external enclosure will do, such as this one. Not pleasing to the eye, but gets the job done. It's cheap for a reason.

Once you put your HD in there, connect it to your MBP and you will be able to use the files from the hard drive. OS X can read NTFS volumes (And FAT32). Back up your files from your drive (onto your MBP's desktop or some other drive), then format your desktops drive and use it as a backup device.

 

[24usedtorock]

You can buy an external enclosure, or one of the bare USB > SATA adapter cables/docks. I have several brands of enclosures (Roswill, Cooldrive (I think...), a 2.5/3.5" dock I bought from geeks.com, and a Newer (OWC) adapter cable set. Newegg.com has a good selection of enclosures.

OS-X can natively read both FAT32 and NTFS, so there shouldn't be any problem accessing the data.

I see one on Newegg for $49.99.

It is a Kingwin 2.5/3.5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121049).

I would just insert the HD standing up, plug in the USB, and then it would appear on my Mac screen like a flash drives folder and I could then access my entire C:/ and prowl through folders to retrieve my pics?

 

[24usedtorock]

Any external enclosure will do, such as this one. Not pleasing to the eye, but gets the job done. It's cheap for a reason.

Once you put your HD in there, connect it to your MBP and you will be able to use the files from the hard drive. OS X can read NTFS volumes (And FAT32). Back up your files from your drive (onto your MBP's desktop or some other drive), then format your desktops drive and use it as a backup device.

I'm with you until the backing up the drive part.

I plug in. I can access the folders on the screen and extract to desktop?

 

[SDAVE]

I see one on Newegg for $49.99.

It is a Kingwin 2.5/3.5 (

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121049).

I would just insert the HD standing up, plug in the USB, and then it would appear on my Mac screen like a flash drives folder and I could then access my entire C:/ and prowl through folders to retrieve my pics?

Yeah, it's not really a big deal.

Also depends on which version of Windows you were running.

If it's Vista/Windows 7, your files will be in \Volumename\Users\YOURUSERNAME\ (Back up everything under this folder. Your desktop is there too)

If it's XP and earlier, it will be under \Volumename\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME

 

[SDAVE]

I'm with you until the backing up the drive part.

I plug in. I can access the folders on the screen and extract to desktop?

Just back up your folders to your MBP's desktop. Then format your external hard drive as you don't need the files, unless you plan to rebuild your PC.

Once you back up your files and format your newly made external drive, you can dump all the files that you saved to your desktop to the external drive. Basically use it as a storage device or just migrate your photos music etc to your MBP and use the external drive as a Time Machine backup device for your laptop. Easy enough.