Transfering Data from One hard Drive To Another

Amad102

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Jul 23, 2013
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I have an old HDD I want to transfer data from to my new HDD for my friend; both are SATA drives. It clicks a little when turned on so I'm not sure if it's dead yet. What I tried to do so far is unplug my new HDD and install the old one into it's spot( I don't believe I have any SATA connectors) and boot Linux Mint from a USB, it had a lot of problems trying to mount the drive, then when it booted to desktop I could not find the drive.

1. Is it completely dead?
2. If I did have SATA connectors could I plug in the old HDD while my computer is on and booted up kind of like a external HDD so I could pull the data off?

What is the easiest way to do this?

Edit: I think I might have some SATA connectors I could take from another computer if that would help.
 
Solution
After a little research the freezer trick seems to have a pretty high success rate for one last attempt on getting data back. Very interesting.
If it is clicking it is having head alignment issues and is on the virge of failure. This is sometimes caused by wear or parts getting slightly out of spec.

You could try the 'freezer trick'. Put the HDD in an anti-static bag with a silica gel pack to absorb moisture (keeps condensation down). Put it in the freezer for an hour. Take it out and remove it from the bag. Set the HDD on a box with static-resistant bag beneath it. Let it sit at room temp for 5 minutes or so. Then try reading it.

You can use something like a Vantec IDE/SATA to USB adapter to quickly connect and power up the drive to start pulling data.

If he has a LOT of data, it will heat up quick and transfer will be slow. So maybe have the PC open, off, with the SATA cable and power ready to connect the drive. That will take a little longer to hook up but will read data much faster.
 

Amad102

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Jul 23, 2013
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10,540


Thanks for the reply.
If I have a SATA cable/power ready and I plug the old HDD into it do I need to do any configurations? I guess what I mean is will my computer know to boot from my HDD and not the one being plugged in and will the old one show up like an external in D drive or something?