I have files on two old hard drives on a computer that is no longer able to recognize a keyboard due to equipment failure. However the files, programs and data stored on the attached hard drives are required. How do I access these files and can I get these back? Your assistance would be most helpful.
You have a couple of options that are available to you. First, I’d like to ask if you have tried another keyboard as an option or booting up into “Safe Mode?” If not, then you might want to try that first. Otherwise, the following options are available to you.
Retrieving Hard Drive Data: Swap out the Hard Drive to Second Computer
One of the easiest options that you have is to remove the hard drives from the broken computer and place them into a second or borrowed computer. Once you do so, you can readily access the drives and transfer the data to another storage device.
Retrieving Hard Drive Data: External Hard Drive Case
When you have a hard drive with data that you want to get but the computer it is in doesn’t work, you can purchase an external hard drive case with a USB connection. An external hard drive case is designed to house a hard drive that has been removed either form a laptop or a desktop computer. They come with USB connections that make them easy to plug into another computer or laptop. They are designed to provide an additional means of adding a hard drive to a computer that doesn’t have room for another one. They are also designed to help computer users access data from a hard drive other than the one inside their computer. A hard drive stored in an external hard drive case should not be used to boot up a computer since it will not perform as well as an internal hard drive.
You simply remove the old hard drive (or in your case, both hard drives) from the non-functioning computer and place it in the external hard drive case. Now, you have an external hard drive! Once the hard drive is safely inside, you plug the external hard drive case into one of the available USB ports on the computer. Now, you should be able to access your files.
Other Options
Will the computer work with a different keyboard? For example, if you are using a USB keyboard, have you tried the computer with a PS/2 keyboard? Will the Windows load at all? Can you use a mouse? If you can get the computer to function, other options would include uploading the data to an online storage site such as Mozy and then downloading the data to your new computer.
Susan Keenan | June 24th, 2009
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