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Resolved Question

Swapping laptop hard drives

Oct 22, 2011 9:54PM PDT

Hi all. I have 2 Dell laptops. One is a working Latitude E6410 and the other is some type of older Dimension that won't power on (power port problems). I have data on the Dimension disk that I'd like to backup, so I want to swap out the Latitude disk for the Dimension.

They both utilize a Seagate Momentus 320GB, 7200RPM hard drive, wth the Dimension containing model 7200.3 and the Latitude containing model 7200.4. Both laptops are running Win 7, however the Dimension is Win 7 64 bit, while the Latitude is 32 bit. The Dimension HD obviously fits into the Latitude, but when I insert it and try to boot, Windows won't load. It get's to the Windows loading screen, then takes me to a startup repair screen. It analyzes for a bit, can't find a problem, then reboots. I'm unable to see the safe boot options -- when I press F8 at startup I'm taken to the same startup repair screen.

Any thoughts? I'm guessing the 64 bit Windows that is trying to load is expecting to see a certain hardware configuration (that of its original computer, the Dimension), but encounters that of the Latitude. Is there any way I can recover my data, aside from getting the Dimension to boot? At some point in the startup recover process, I'm able to access a command prompt. I tried plugging in a USB hard drive to attempt to backup from command prompt, but couldn't see it.

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Best Answer

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Re: backup
Oct 22, 2011 10:06PM PDT

This won't work, for the reason you already mentioned: different hardware.

Buy a USB to SATA/IDE-cable or an external enclosure, and use that to make a nice external hard disk from the disk you want to read. Then all data will be fully accessible using Linux; in another Windows you might need to take ownership of the files that are stored in a profile.

Kees

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OK
Oct 23, 2011 2:20AM PDT

Thanks very much. The USB to SATA/IDE cable is doable. Other people have also suggested opening up an external hard drive and inserting mine into it. I assume that's because external HD enclosures have multiple connector types?

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Re: swapping disks
Oct 23, 2011 5:29AM PDT

Motherboard and video card drivers are the most common cause of such a mismatch.

Kees