I took the HDD out of my laptop and I am debating to go to Fry's electronics to buy a Sata to usb adapter so i can connect it to my desktop and retrive my music files. The hdd has a couple of errors, Cant find NTLDR, corrupt registry (CHKDSK cant fix) and a unmountable boot volume. will i be able to find my files if i connect it like a regular usb to my desktop?
Yes, most likely you will be able to find your files using the adapter.
Ultimately, the HDD is not operable under an internal enviroment.
Using a SATA to USB adaptor, you CAN transfer content (such as.. Music, Movies, and stuffs) you just can't use the OS.
So most likely for his scenario you're set, hence you're not using the OS
Hello Mike, welcome to Seven Forums!
Have a look at this tutorial linked below to see if this method will help get the data out without removing the HDD from the lappy and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.
Agreed. If you are having errors now, they may still affect you. If me, the first thing I would do after installing that drive in an enclosure is run chkdsk /r on it to check for, and possibly repair any errors. Note, chkdsk can be run on the drive in the original machine from the Recovery Console too.
The Registry should have nothing to do with it, unless you tried to run chkdsk on the same drive you booted from. That is, if installed on another computer as a secondary drive, the Registry does not matter.
No, sorry. You are not following. When you use chkdsk /r to run on a secondary drive (not the boot drive), or you run chkdsk /r from the Recovery Console, the Registry is not used, or read in as the Registry, just bytes on the disk as any data is read. For example, if you have Microsoft Word installed on your drive, chkdsk would not know it is a Word file - it just knows there is data on the disk.
Are you sure it is not reporting the drive or volume had unrecoverable items?
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