Help/advice needed please

[gbpot]

Hi peeps,
Computer blew up last night. Not a ppffst, more of a BANG!
Top, near power unit, was hot so I figure the power unit went. No lights etc.

Question is, Will the two hard drives (one a back up) be ok? not bothered about the comp as it does'nt owe me anything, but lots of stuff on the hd's.
I was wondering if I took them out, is there a cable I could buy that would connect to the hd's with a usb at other end to connect to laptop or other comp? Would let me transfer stuff to new? The problem is how you power up the drives I suppose.

Any advice appreciated.
Gav

 

[Womble]

Maplin sell a few items that should help you, e.g. http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35057 which comes with a power supply for use with 3.5" drives.

You should be OK - exploding power supplies don't often kill hard drives, although it does occasionally happen, taking out the electronics.

 

[MattW]

Hi peeps,
Computer blew up last night. Not a ppffst, more of a BANG!
Top, near power unit, was hot so I figure the power unit went. No lights etc.

Question is, Will the two hard drives (one a back up) be ok? not bothered about the comp as it does'nt owe me anything, but lots of stuff on the hd's.
I was wondering if I took them out, is there a cable I could buy that would connect to the hd's with a usb at other end to connect to laptop or other comp? Would let me transfer stuff to new? The problem is how you power up the drives I suppose.

Any advice appreciated.
Gav

The hard drives will probably be ok but it depends on whether they were reading / writing when the power went down.

Yes you can get a hard drive to usb adapter - this type of thing - they come with a power supply for the drive. I use one of these regularly when recovering data from other peoples' dead computers. On an IDE drive, you need to make sure you set the jumpers on the drive to the correct mode (usually 'master') or it won't work.

 

[shugie]

I use these http://www.overclock.co.uk/product/35inch--25inch-SATA2-USB30-Hard-Disk-Docking-Station_26811.html for external hard disks as backup devices.

Fast, cheaper than tapes and tape drives, and could be used to connect your drives to a PC to transfer the data. Atlhough if the power supply allowed a surge on the output, the drives might not work any more, have had that happen a couple of times (in about 25 years though).

 

[andyclift]

Find your local computer fair. Power supplies are dead cheap and easy to fit.