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Save The Data! Your computer maybe dead, but your hard drive's heart still beats!

Date: 03 May 2010
Member: Jason Garner


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By now, most scientists still have no viable backup to computer data.
One of my old PIs learned the hard way...6 months of work stored on a desktop PC - fried. Stamped out by the cyberspace goblins. Gone forever. Or is it?

Some scientists and lab folks have become wiser over the years, investing in live battery back-ups, external hard drives, and memory sticks. Improvements in cost and availability of these life savers has made them more popular. But what happens when it is too late? You get that familiar blue screen that your hard drive has crashed. Now what? Up until recently, you would have to find a reputable computer geek to recover the stuff for you.

Now, enter the internal hard drive enclosure. These are super cool and simple, and have actually been around a while. Someone just figured out "Hey, someone just might pay money for this." Just like the title implies, it is simply an enclosure - for the hard drive of your recently defunct laptop or desktop. Yes, you can remove the IDE hard drive (either 2.5" or 3.5"), snap it into the special enclosure and now you can (in most cases) retrieve previously lost work (in folders and files) as well as pictures, programs, spreadsheets, Vcards, etc. Secondly, you now have an external hard drive - to back up your work on your new laptop or desktop.

Most just require a USB 2.0 connection (USB cables are usually supplied with the enclosure) and some offer 400-800 Firewire capability. So, plug in your new external hard drive to your laptop or PC and recover the files you thought you just lost OR back-up files from your new PC or MAC.

Yeah, yeah I know you can get 500GB external HD for about $100 now for back ups. But, what are the alternatives for a crashed computer? You got a $50 6-50 lb. door stop. So, remove your computer's HD, sell the rest on ebay, use that money to invest $50-$80 on a cool HD enclosure and not only do you recover your precious work but you also have an external hard drive.

Most desktop "tower" systems and laptops have easy access to the hard drive and the tools required are usually just a medium point phillips screwdriver.

$50-$80. Screwdriver. 20-30 minutes. Save your hard drive. Save your data. Impress your friends. Get back to work.

jlg

Last Updated on 03 May 2010

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