Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

bigben334

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 30, 2005
102
0
my brother's windows laptop all of a sudden doesn't boot up....i think if i recover his computer it will fix the problem but he doesn't want to lose all of his files, therefore i need to back up his harddrive...i though about connecting our 2 laptops (i have a macbook) and backing up his hard drive onto mine, but i dont know how to do that...i think its possible...i HOPE its possible...so if somebody please tell me how to do this i would be very grateful...thanks in advance
 

xfiftyfour

macrumors 68030
Apr 14, 2006
2,573
0
Clemson, SC
better idea: buy an external USB enclosure (you can get a cheap one for around $20), remove his hard drive, put it in the enclosure, connect the enclosure to your MB, pull off any data if the hard drive is still readable, and there ya go. then you'd have all of his data and can do whatever you want with the hard drive (ie: format and reinstall windows).

side note: if the HD is the REASON windows won't boot, then this may or may not work.. like if the HD is physically damaged somehow (but then again, neither would connecting the two laptops).
 

wako

macrumors 65816
Jun 6, 2005
1,404
1
Even Better Idea: Buy this adapter

I always have these things handy because a good enclosure costs alot and requires more work. For a failing system that wont boot and just need to pull some data off, this should be sufficiently fine and is definitely the cheaper route (unless you want a really ghetto enclosure). I love mine. :)

One problem to this whole equation is that sometimes mac have trouble reading data from NTFS partition, so you might have to back it up to a Windows system.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.