Hard disk recovery?

[DiddlyQuaQua]

Finally my old Pentium II with Windows 98SE has bitten the dust. It will boot to safe mode but no further. How can I retrieve the data from my hard drive and transfer it to my laptop? I am looking to recover photos, mp3s and documents from 'My Documents' folder as well as copies of e-mails from Outlook Express. Can I do this myself or is it safer to take to a repair shop. If I use an external hard disk, what type should I buy to do the job?
I am only looking to retrieve files and not recover the whole pc.
Many thanks.

[LeMarchand]

If memory serves, the USB support on 98SE wasn't as good as it was supposed to be - so an external drive may not necessarily work, especially as most manufacturers have stopped providing drivers for 98. That said, if you get one from (say) PC World or Argos you should be able to return it if it doesn't.

Pretty much any external disc you buy will be USB, so if your old machine doesn't have such a port you'll have to use something else (see below). If it does have USB, any sufficiently large drive will do, though I'd buy the biggest you can afford on the grounds that it would be useful for other things (like backing up your lappy). If you're really tight for cash you could also try saving stuff to a USB key or even CD (if you can).

Idea for non-USB enabled 98 machine to follow...

[LeMarchand]

Another option would be to remove your old hard drive and use either an external enclosure (a box with a few gubbins that will turn your old drive into an external drive) or an IDE/SATA to USB bridge (a lead that connects a hard drive to a USB port, enabling it to function as an external drive). You can get both quite cheaply from eBay.

You should then be able to drag and drop from your old drive to your laptop.

The techniques in both my answers should make it fairly easy to retrieve your documents. I seem to recall that emails are a bit trickier. If you can open Outlook in safe mode, have a look at the options. I think there's some sort of "export" function built in.

BTW, have you tried using your 98 disc to run a Repair (I think you can do this on 98, been a while)? It seems odd that you can get into Safe Mode but no further.

[DiddlyQuaQua]

Thanks for your time.
I think I will go with the external hard drive option first ......as you say it will be useful for other stuff.
I had recently installed a USB 2.0 multi-port pci card and so I'm pretty ok on USB ports I think.

It may be that I can go further from safe mode, just that my knowledge doesn't extend that far. My windows disk was, unfortunately, not returned to me after I had a disk crash a few years ago and took the comp with it in to a shop for repair.

I may also go down to Maplins & ask them about the external enclosure option. I have another old hard drive lying about from which I've never recovered anything.

Thanks again.

[ACtheTROLL]

try the drive .... even then ... it could well fail ... with se ... usb is there ... but you'll almost certainly need the hdds drivers disc and you'll probably only have 1.1 support so it will be slow

even if you "only" have safe mode
it sounds like It's software and probably not hardware causing your problems..... either just re-install windows

alternatively download knoppix and boot from that ... it comes with usb support

[ACtheTROLL]

oops re read ... LeMarchand's reply ... he's right ... your best bet is the external hdd for connection to your lappy.

[ianmunt]

I agree,get an external USB drive caddy and the lap top should recognise it as an extra drive in My Computer,you can then copy across.I'd also suggest once you have done this to burn copies to CD or DVD as back-up