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A year or so ago I had a desktop computer that was struck by lightening. Nothing would come on after that. However, Office Depot says they can probably get everything off my hard drive and put it on an external drive. The only thing I am worried about are my pictures and videos. Is this possible?
So you kept the hard drive for over 12 months then?
Yes, it is possible. There may be nothing wrong with the hard drive, perhaps the motherboard and/or PSU got fried and that was why nothing would come on.
Have you tested the hard drive in a different (working) tower? You could also buy an external case and convert it to external USB yourself. The cases are pretty cheap and it's easy to do.
If the drive is damaged though, that would be an entirely different story, the data could still be resurrected perhaps but it would involve specialist procedures.
I'd be checking the hard drive to see if data is still readable before parting with any money.
Cheers...Jim
You've got more than a 50/50 chance that the hard disk was spared. The surge most definitely fried your power supply and some integrated chips (ic's) on the motherboard. Thought your hard disk might of suffered some damage, (some is the key word), there is still an excellent chance of recovery (thought many not 100%), Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
A friend of mine put it in his computer and it did nothing. Do you think this means it's fried also? I now have a laptop so no way to hook it up on mine. Yes – I kept it hoping something could be done eventually. My dad has a desktop computer - but I have no idea how to check it out on his.
There are some ifs and buts here. Do you know if your old drive is IDE or SATA? Also, do you know if Dad's computer is IDE or SATA? A newer SATA drive will have a narrow cable linking it to the motherboard (around 3/8"). An older IDE drive will be connected via a wider ribbon type cable (about 1.5" to 1.75" wide).
An IDE drive can still be connected to SATA - and vice versa - but you will need an adapter. If they are both the same, it is pretty straight forward. Most motherboards will have a spare connection for extra drive and there should also be an extra power cable. Simplest way would probably be to disconnect the optical (CD/DVD) drive and use those leads to connect the second hard drive.
Leave the original hard drive connected and boot the machine as normal. Then check to see if the drive in question is listed under My Computer or Disk Management.
You can still connect the old hard drive to the laptop but you would need to buy an external enclosure. So it depends on you and how far you wish to go. External enclosures are not all that expensive and fitting the old drive is quite a simple procedure. You can then connect the whole thing via USB and see if it is recognized at all.
Cheers... Jim
This may sound silly, but why not take your harddisk to a computer repair store and ask the tech to simply check if the drive is readable. Believe this is a free service (just to check it out), and then you'll be better able to follow through, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
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