Hard Drive and enclosure

[coleman318]

Hello, my older laptop recently went to shambles and I need to retrieve data from the hard drive. When the computer starts up you can hear some noise (i don't know if this is the hard drive or what) But the notebook doesn't seem to function. The notebook shows it gets power then after about 5 seconds turns back off. I don't know if this is a motherboard issue, it doesn't even load the bios or show the "Dell" start up frame, the screen is just blank with no cursor or nothing.

I was glancing over ways to retrieve this data and I saw that an option is an external enclosure, and I thought i would give it a try because they are pretty cheap. Now I'm confused on which one to get, because I don't know if you need to find one with the exact dimensions of the internal hard drive. I looked up replacement hard drives for the model of notebook and the dimensions it shows: .37" H x 3.94" L x 2.75"

I was wondering if anyone could guide me with any advice in removing the data from the hard drive, and advice on the dimension question. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Coleman

 

[veg1992]

The cheapest way is probably a hard-drive caddy

 

[coleman318]

The cheapest way is probably a hard-drive caddy

The hard drive caddy looks really similar to the external closure. If not, what are the main differences?

The interface of the Dell Inspiron 5100 hard drive is ATA. When I'm purchasing a caddy or external closure what interface should i chose?

I'm not very informed on hard drives, but i see my options are:
IDE to USB 2.0
SATA to USB 2.0


Thanks,
Coleman

 

[veg1992]

ATA is the same thing as IDE/PATA.

So you'd want the IDE to USB 2.0 one.

They really are the same thing, but I find the Caddy's to be more convienient, because you don't have to open up the enclosure every time to access the drive slot. In addition, most caddy's aren't cheaply made (like some of the enclosure company's enclosures).

 

[coleman318]

thank you very much! I'm assuming the extra $10-20 for a caddy is worth it.

 

[veg1992]

Is it really $10 more?

Can you show me the links of both the enclosures and the caddy's?

 

[coleman318]

Here's the External enclosure: IDE to USB 2.0

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX81U-ES-25B 2.5" IDE to USB 2.0 External Enclosure - External Enclosures



Hard Drive Caddy:

Newegg.com - StarTech DRW110CADBK Extra Drive Caddy for Black DRW110ATABK Drawer - HDD Accessories


I'm kind of on a budget, but those were the ones i was looking at.


The external enclosure got good feedback though.

 

[veg1992]

Go with the cheaper enclosure then... its not a cheap brand.

 

[coleman318]

k thanks for the help. Just placed the order for the enclosure.

 

[coleman318]

i recently purchased:

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX81U-ES-25B 2.5" IDE to USB 2.0 External Enclosure - External Enclosures

The hard drive inside the laptop is Fujitsu MHT2040AT

pdf manual:

http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/COMP/fcpa/hdd/discontinued/mht20xxat_prod-manual.pdf

I'm having a hard time finding the right external hard drive enclosure for this particular hard drive. If someone with more experience can guide me to the right enclosure I'm looking for, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,
Coleman