my refurb T40 is broken

[ndebord]

Well, this is not fun. Today my refurb T40 refused to boot up. It said "fan error" and after talking to IBM TSR, they said it was a precautionary routine to prevent the laptop from "burning up." They will pick it up by DHL on Monday and return it to me on Thursday. Not bad IF it were not the case that I need it now.

Any ideas on how I can gain access to the hard drive and transfer everything to another computer. I have a Travelstar pcmcia hard drive that is an IBM product that can hold everything that is currently on the hard drive and I have an old Dell laptop running W98se. If I could use the Dell's USB 1.1 port somehow to connect to the T40 hard drive and then copy over the files. But I think I need to be able to remove the hard drive and find an interface that will let me connect it to the DELL where I can then copy over the files to the Travelstar.

Other solutions welcomed.

:-(

[Mike]

Any ideas on how I can gain access to the hard drive and transfer everything to another computer.
You should be able to remove the hard drive. Likely it's either behind a small door, or else a portion of the case actually is part of the hard drive carrier.

Once the hard drive carrier is out of the machine, you should be able to open it and remove the hard drive assembly.

Once you have the hard drive assembly, you can insert it into a small case that's available in many computer stores. In CA, we have Fry's, but MicroCenter might be a source. The case is similar to the notebook's hard drive carrier, except after the drive is put into it, the case's USB cable can be plugged into any USB port.

My biggest concern is whether Win98SE would recognize an external hard drive that was formatted in NTFS (by WinXP), instead of FAT32 (the normal for Win98).

Sorry to hear about the problem. I hope it's resolved soon!

[Jeff]

Any ideas on how I can gain access to the hard drive and transfer everything to another computer. :-(

When I bought HAL R51 about three years ago I took it, and my previous Toshiba notebook to a small computer shop in a small town close by. He simply removed both harddrives, connected each to a ribbon cable, and copied what I wanted while I watched from the Tosh drive to the IBM drive directly, reading each drive on splitscreen and making directories as needed on the IBM. It was quick and painless. The computer sitting between the drives mediated things.

- Jeff

[Judy G. Russell]

Other solutions welcomed.Oh dear... this is not fun. But Jeff's solution -- take it to a small shop -- is the best idea. They'll have everything transferred over in no time, and at little expense.

[fhaber]

Small shop is the best deal, considering you have to deal with these....

o 98 can't read NTFS You need XP or Mac OS X, or possibly Linux.
o you have to remove drive from the IBM carrier.
o you have to buy a 2.5-->3.5 adaptor, or a laptop drive case.

You might have to buy an external case and drive of some sort, since the tech might not want to deal with a 1.8" older card-slot Travelstar. I might buy a 4-8G thumb drive instead - they're cheap enough now (if the T40 has USB 2 - I forget). You could also consider burning a DVD or two.

And

[Jeff]

Oh dear... this is not fun. But Jeff's solution -- take it to a small shop -- is the best idea. They'll have everything transferred over in no time, and at little expense.

Yeah, when I said the computer was mediating between the two harddrives it was looking at FAT32 on the Tosh drive and NTFS on the IBM. But lordy it was strange looking at both drives dangling in the air from the end of their ribbon cables; out of their machine cradles it was too dangerous to put them on the bench as they would be vulnerable to any vibration and such.

- Jeff

[Dan in Saint Louis]

Yeah, when I said the computer was mediating between the two harddrives it was looking at FAT32 on the Tosh drive and NTFS on the IBM.
No problem, as only binary files were being transferred, not the disk formatting.
out of their machine cradles it was too dangerous to put them on the bench as they would be vulnerable to any vibration and such.Not really a problem, think of how much vibration a laptop drive can withstand!

[ndebord]

You should be able to remove the hard drive. Likely it's either behind a small door, or else a portion of the case actually is part of the hard drive carrier.

Once the hard drive carrier is out of the machine, you should be able to open it and remove the hard drive assembly.

Once you have the hard drive assembly, you can insert it into a small case that's available in many computer stores. In CA, we have Fry's, but MicroCenter might be a source. The case is similar to the notebook's hard drive carrier, except after the drive is put into it, the case's USB cable can be plugged into any USB port.

My biggest concern is whether Win98SE would recognize an external hard drive that was formatted in NTFS (by WinXP), instead of FAT32 (the normal for Win98).

Sorry to hear about the problem. I hope it's resolved soon!

Mike, Jeff and Dan,

Well, I ran out of time. (Running a restaurant has put new meaning into the phrase 24/7.) DHL picked it up this morning and they say I'll get it back Thursday.

I'll ahve to pick up yet another XP computer and retire my other old Armada which runs W98se. I need to have the ability to backup HDs properly and I will ook for either a caddy or a cable to do that via USB (as you all said, that looks like the way to go when you are dealing with laptops.)

I'm making due with a desktop at work, although it is minus all my financial stuff. Which reminds me. None of my stuff on that Thinkpad was password protected.SIGH

[fhaber]

>None of my stuff on that Thinkpad was password protected.SIGH

Urp. Change your online-banking passwords and PINs?

I wouldn't worry too much. And IBM service centers can bypass some of that hardware encryption anyway, if needed, by secret means.

[ndebord]

>None of my stuff on that Thinkpad was password protected.SIGH

Urp. Change your online-banking passwords and PINs?

I wouldn't worry too much. And IBM service centers can bypass some of that hardware encryption anyway, if needed, by secret means.

Frank,

I use a double encryption system for my files of triple des and 128 key blowfish. But I had not encrypted that file that day.

<sigh>

[fhaber]

I don't know why I remembered this thread, but what DID become of that benighted T40? Working now?

[ndebord]

I don't know why I remembered this thread, but what DID become of that benighted T40? Working now?

Frank,

Yes it is working fine now. Don't what it is with the fans on these machines, but everything is good. Still ahve to set up a good backup routine, but have a HD that should do the trick, just haven't had the time to get around to figuring out how to do things.

<sigh>