I recently dropped my laptop and it does not work yet. To try to retrieve my files from the hard drive, I bought a USB hard drive enclosure. My question is this....I bought a SATA USB enclosure, but on the back of my laptop hard drive, it says ATA. The drive seems to fit the enclosure well, but I can't access the drive from my desktop PC. This may be because the hard drive was damaged from the fall, but would my ATA drive work correctly in an SATA enclosure? Thanks in advance for any help, as I have searched for an answer but can't find the exact info I need.
Two card egde connectors, I think. It has two flat, thin, connectors instead of pins sticking out. Hope that helps.
That is a SATA hard drive loudy 1, it is still an ATA hard drive, its just SATA uses seriel transfer hence the S, the older IDE is called PATA which uses Parellel transfer rates, hence the P. So you have got the right enclosure allright, so if you have connected the 2 thin connectors (one is power cable, the other is data cable) and your comp is not seeing the drive, it may be damaged. Try in another system to make sure it is not something to do with your comp (i am imagining that you are using Win2K, XP, or Vista, older operating systems may need a driver). I do take it that you cant see the drive in my computer, and it is not that you can see the drive but not access the folders)
Everything connects fine, and I actually accessed the drive once, but while browsing the folders my comp froze up. After disconnecting the USB enclosure containing the laptop hard drive, my comp resumed working fine. But most times I can't even see the drive in My Computer. Seems like the laptop hard drive is not working properly. After I dropped the laptop (it was still turned on when dropped), the Gateway screen would appear, then the diagnostic screen would appear. I tried to repair using my Vista disc which came with my laptop, but the comp froze. During the fall, my power supply was broken, and I could no longer charge the battery. I received my new power supply today and have charged the battery. Now when I turn it on it powers up for about 5-7 seconds, but then goes off. I tried powering up without the hard drive and it does the same thing. Now though, the screen stays blank, no Gateway logo or anything, just black. This happens with or without the hard drive. I'm hoping it's not the mobo. Any suggestions on troubleshooting the problem? I really need this laptop for school, and there are a lot of pics, etc on the hard drive I would like to access. BTW, the laptop is a Gateway ML6732. Here are the specs: My Laptop
Are there any diagnostic tools or utilities which would check the condition of this hard drive? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Here are the details of this drive: Manufacturer Western Digital Model WD3200BEVT Size 320 GB Interface SATA 3 Gb/s Formatted capacity 320,072 MB User sectors per drive 625,142,448 Cache buffer 8 MB Bytes per sector 512 Form factor 2.5-inch Average latency (msec) 5.5 Cache Read: Adaptive Write: Yes Data transfer rate * Buffer to disk: 850 Mbits/s maximum * Buffer to host: 3 Gb/s maximum Drive ready time 4.0 sec (average) Error rate (non-recoverable) <1 in 1014 bits read Load/Unload cycle 600,000 Rotational speed 5,400 RPM Full stroke Read 21 ms (average) Average seek Read 12 ms (average) Track-to-track seek 2.0 ms (average) Current requirement 5 V Read/Write: 500 mA Idle: 400 mA Standby: 50 mA Sleep: 20 mA Power dissipation Read/Write: 2.50 watts Idle: 2.00 watts Standby: 0.25 watts Sleep: 0.10 watts Temperature Operating: 5 to 60° C (41 to 140° F) Non-operating: -40 to 65° C (-40 to 149° F) Humidity Operating: 8 to 90° RH non-condensing Non-operating: 5 to 95° RH non-condensing Vibration Operating: 0.00459 g2/Hz (10 to 500 Hz) Non-operating: 0.05102 g2/Hz (10 to 500 Hz) Height 9.5 millimeters ( .374-inches) Width 69.85 mm (2.75-inches) Depth 100 mm (3.945-inches) Weight 117 grams
Hi loudy 1, 1- As far as the hard drive goes there is every chance that it is damaged, the fact that the laptop was switched on when dropped increases the chances dramatically. This is because the platters will have been spinning at the time. I would try your enclosure in another computer however if you can get access to one but this is just a straw clutcher. You will not be able to run any diagnostics tools on the drive if you can not see it. There are a number of tools on hereif you could see the drive. Download here. All you need to do is burn the iso image to CD. 2- I would like to give you good news on the laptop itself but there could be any number of problems with it. First thing to do is check the memory to see if it has become dislodged with the fall, remove and reseat, do this with any other cards accesssible from the bottom if there are any like modem etc. It is possible that your graphics card is damaged, this is integrated on the motherbored and can not be changed by yourself, or the graphics wire to the display screen could be damaged, if you have or can get hold of a 15pin vga (male both ends) connector, you could try to connect up to another monitor to see if you get the BIOS or gateway screen, if you can this will tell you your graphics card is working and the problem is with the wires or display screen itself. NOTE: if it does not work it does not mean the graphics card is certainly damaged. Eitherway it would mean stripping the laptop down to fix, and check for any other faults inside, i dont advise you to do this unless experienced or you can not afford to pay an engineer.
Yes i stand corrected ddp, forgot he mentioned he had desktop in first post, i have been working on a few laptops the past few days and they have gone to my head.
