How to retrieve data from crashed hard drive

[Traveltech]

Hello. I have an old desk top that has been in the closet for about 4 years now. It was working when I stashed it so I'm assuming it will fire up. I also have an old hard drive that I would like to attempt to get data from. I believe it crashed and I pulled it and stashed it too. The situation is that I gave away the old bulky monitor to that desktop and do not have another. I currently only use laptops.

Can I connect my laptop to the desktop with a network cat5 cable and try to retrieve the data from the crashed hard drive that way? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[MindoverMaster]

Get a HDD enclosure. Try and get data off that by way of USB.

Newegg.com - MASSCOOL UHB-360US Aluminum 3.5" USB 2.0 External Enclosure

 

[Traveltech]

The drive is 4" wide. It's a desktop drive not a laptop drive. That's why I was thinking a network cable between the two with some type of open source software to read the data. Just speculation as I'm not a tech. I'd like to try the network cable but I'm not sure if it is a safe way to connect two computers. Thanks

 

[MindoverMaster]

Laptop dives are 2.5, Desktop drives are 3.5. It will fit in it.

 

[Traveltech]

Great! Now I have an old maxtor external backup drive. Would disassembling that, removing the current drive and putting the old drive in that work?

 

[MindoverMaster]

I do not know the HDD is IDE or SATA.

 

[Traveltech]

It is a sata drive as is the old drive. I've disassembled the old backup successfully and inserted the bad hard drive but the computer is not recognizing it. Any suggestions on open source software to read the drive?

Thanks for your help

 

[MindoverMaster]

Try getting a Live Cd of Ubuntu. See if it can see it at all.

 

[Traveltech]

Try getting a Live Cd of Ubuntu. See if it can see it at all.

I have ubuntu installed and switched to it The Disk Utility can see it but I can't see it in terminal using fskdisk. I think it is toast but I'd like to see if there is some utility out there that can help. The disk is spinning it just clicks a couple of times at start up and then nothing. I've placed the thing in the freezer as I've heard that can help revive a stuck armature. Thanks for your help.