Monitor connection on desktop broken ...

The connection location on the back of the desktop computer cpu where a monitor would normally plug in is broken. It got ripped right out of the back of my friends computer.

The computer still turns on and worked fine until it could no longer be connected to a monitor to see what it's doing. I can't even connect to it to see what kind of computer it is or what system it's running. My friend thinks it's Windows XP or Vista, maybe 7. As for what the name of the computer brand is she had no idea, let alone RAM or hard drive memory.

Is there a way to connect it to my laptop (Vista 64 bit) so I can transfer some of the files off the hard drive onto my laptop? I'm trying to recover her pictures for her.

I've tried connecting them via what I think is called a lan connector. Looks like a phone cord but it has more pins suitable for an internet connection. My laptop could not discover it, and it usually discovers anything connected via one of the ports on it or via the wireless network, no problem.

Then I connected the desktop to the wireless router with the direct connection wire I had used to try to connect it to my laptop. Still isn't discovered in my computer network discovery. And it's not the cord, because it works fine to create a direct connection to the internet for my laptop.

Also, there is no s-video port on her desktop, nor is there an hdmi port. There are usb ports, but I don't have a usb to usb connector and I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about connecting two computers together for short term servicing options. And I'm not sure even if I did that if I'd be able to "see" her computer and therefore control it. If it is, I'll go buy one.

Any suggestions to help my friend recover her pictures would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

How do I slave the hard drive to another computer? I think that must be the terminology for what I'm trying to do by connecting the desktop to my laptop.

How do I go about finding an appropriate video card when I can't find the information about what kind of computer or system etc? Is there some type of generic one that would work?

Thank you,

 

I may try that, thank you. I would like to try a direct connection somehow first though. Is that what you called making it a hard drive slave to my laptop? How do I make the hard drive connect to, and therefore be visible as a drive, on my laptop? I'm thinking then I can just transfer files from one drive to another.

I appreciate any help with this, I often get asked for help in recovering lost photo files. Having a way to directly connect their hard drives to my laptop as a separate drive for ease of file transfer would be ideal, thanks again,

 

An external enclosure would do it: here's the generic Newegg enclosure page, but if you decide to go that route, you might want to do some more research (both here and on the web) for the best package for your situation.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

 

Oooh - I like that one - I'm gonna have to go to there - thanks, Just Playin!

 

Thank you! I think that universal Vantec adapter will do the trick! I'll let you know when it comes in!

So, is there anything else I need to beware of or research before I buy this? Because it says it will work on a variety of hard drives I'm assuming it will work on mine. Is this foolish?

Thanks again for the lead! Awesome find!

 

Actually, and importantly, it does NOT work with 2.5" SATA HDDs (the standard in laptops)... only 2.5" IDE connections. I have one, and figured that out the hard way when I pulled it out of the drawer to use with a laptop HDD and... well, that doesn't work!

It will work with any 3.5" HDD, though.

 

Why dont you just buy a second user graphics card or even borrow a one ,would save a hell of alot of bother than dragging files from another hdd.

 

To correct my above post... it does work with the 2.5" SATA drives, I failed to realize that!

 

If whatever happened to rip out the VGA connection also damaged the mobo, then a new video card is pointless.

Best bet is making it an external slave, saving off all necessary files and then if the skill is there, troubleshoot the mobo problem, find what slots are available and then attempt to fix the original machine.

My guess is the slave option is his best bet.

 

Thanks for all your help and advice everyone, I finally bought the newegg adapter. I must say I'm impressed, albeit a little bit frustrated.

I plugged it in, following the directions, and everything went the way it should. The drive even shows up under "My Computer". However, if I try to click on that drive it says cannnot read it. When I first plugged it in it said I had to format it, but I cancelled that as I'm trying to recover photo and document files, and didn't want to erase the whole drive.

I did a drive check through "manage" under "Computer" and it also reads the drive as being there. It says it's healthy, with 37.30 GB RAW Healthy (active, primary partition) AND 10 MB unallocated. My drives on my laptop say NTFS, could this be part of the problem?

Some of the instructions say if you have to format the hard drive to back it up first, then format. How do you back it up if it can't read it?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you,

 

Greetings, @hometechy.

We really need to find out what operating system, Service Pack #, and architecture (32- or 64-bit) the drive in question has loaded. Is there no identification sticker, Windows Product key sticker, etc. on the desktop case? Any documentation at all?

 

Sorry, no markings on the computer at all. I'm pretty sure she was running Windows XP, although which service pack I'm not sure, and I'm pretty sure it was 32 bit just by the age.
The hard drive itself is a Samsung sp0411n, which I had a really hard time finding any info about at all online. The Samsung site doesn't have anything as small as 40 GB anymore. That's the size of this hard drive, is 40 GB. It also has on it: LBA 78.242.976 and the word PANGO. Rev A. And I think it was made in Feb of 2004, in Korea. That's all I know.
Do you think one of those file recovery programs like Pandora would do the trick?
Thanks for answering,

 

oh and the laptop I'm trying to use the newegg device with, to read the drive, is a 64 bit Vista SP2. Thanks,

 

You could try Minitool Data Recovery. I find the interface confusing but others have had luck with copying files. [It is apparently very slow--as in hours]

Try the lost partition option. If you can see the files you must copy them to the laptop harddrive not the original HD you are trying to recover the files from.

 

Thank you everyone! The newegg tool is working well and combined with the minitool data recovery software recommended, I can even see and recover the files on drives that can't be read normally!

PS ... tried the newegg device on a different hard drive from a different computer, and it worked great, able to transfer files without the minitool data recovery software.

Majorgeeks forums are the best!

 

Glad you're getting everything sorted, @hometechy - thanks for the feedback! :major