Laptop problem.

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pre65
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#1 Laptop problem.

Post by pre65 »

A friend of mine has recently replaced her laptop cos the display packed up. Trouble is there is a lot of audio on the old hard drive she would like to retrieve.

Could we use the old hard drive in a caddy connected by USB to the new laptop ?

Are laptops normally 2.5" drives ?
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colin.hepburn
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#2 Re: Laptop problem.

Post by colin.hepburn »

pre65 wrote:A friend of mine has recently replaced her laptop cos the display packed up. Trouble is there is a lot of audio on the old hard drive she would like to retrieve.

Could we use the old hard drive in a caddy connected by USB to the new laptop ?

Are laptops normally 2.5" drives ?
Yep just get one of these to suit the hard drive ether an IDE or Sata whichever the drive is and you can use it as a backup drive as well
http://www.cclonline.com/category/703/S ... Enclosure/
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Ray P
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#3

Post by Ray P »

Phil, what if the laptop had suffered a disk failure - you would be hard pressed to retrieve anything then!

Home Computing Rule #1: Always back up your data.

However, you will be able to connect the old drive to the new laptop via a caddy/cable to suit the specifics.

Ray
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#4

Post by The Stratmangler »

Has the old laptop got a VGA output?
Connect up a screen so you can see what you're doing and transfer all the valuable stuff off the old laptop.
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pre65
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#5

Post by pre65 »

I've got a external hard disc housing (with it's own PSU) for a normal size (3.5" ?) hard drive with SATA and the other sort. Will that work temporarily on a 2.5" drive?

Also, do laptops generally have a VGA socket for an external monitor ?

Sorry about the dumb questions but I've never had a laptop.
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Ray P
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#6

Post by Ray P »

Using a seperate monitor is a really good suggestion; in my experience you'll be unlucky if the laptop doesn't have a VGA connection.

Ray
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#7

Post by pre65 »

Ray P wrote:Using a seperate monitor is a really good suggestion; in my experience you'll be unlucky if the laptop doesn't have a VGA connection.

Ray
That's good, then I can use my memory stick to transfer data. :)
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#8

Post by Mike H »

I reckon. :thumbleft:
 
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pre65
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#9

Post by pre65 »

I've got the old laptop with me now and it's up and running with my old monitor and a USB mouse.

It's on Vista which is new to me. :wink:
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pre65
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#10

Post by pre65 »

Seems all the music is on I tunes. I'm not familiar with that, so is there an easy way to move the contents to my memory stick ?

Or any other suggestions. :wink:
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#11

Post by The Stratmangler »

Find where the files are stored, then select all, copy and paste them.
Simples :)
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#12

Post by pre65 »

The Stratmangler wrote:Find where the files are stored, then select all, copy and paste them.
Simples :)
That sounds easy, what about importing then on the new laptop ?
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#13

Post by The Stratmangler »

pre65 wrote:That sounds easy, what about importing then on the new laptop ?
Plug USB memory into new computer, select all, copy and paste into new music folder.
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#14

Post by Nick »

Are they tunes purchased via itunes?
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#15

Post by Mike H »

If they have the .m4a extension, yes. But you're right you can add anything to an iTunes library.

@ Phil if they've been organized in iTunes (and especially if iTunes purchases) then you'll probably find they are stored in sub-folders by artist name then album name, best recourse I've found is go for the top level folder at:

C:\Users\*UserName*\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music

and copy that. Everything contained therein will follow, keeping the same directory structure. (It's how I do my back-ups.)

Note ^ *UserName* is whoever the user's name is, which I wouldn't know in this case :D

HTH
 
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