Dead Macbook... Suggestions on what to do with hard drive?

Alright, so my 5 year old MacBook died a few months ago. I know why it died and I know how to fix it, but it really isn't worth it (specs are pretty bad). That hard drive, though, does have a lot of information that I would like to recover (iTunes library, pictures, and videos). I recently purchased a windows laptop to replace my mac (I couldn't afford another mac this time around). Ultimately, I would love to convert this hard drive to an external (after I recover my files). Any suggestions as the best/ easiest way to do this? Thank you so much in advance.

Bberrios said:

Ultimately, I would love to convert this hard drive to an external (after I recover my files). Any suggestions as the best/ easiest way to do this? Thank you so much in advance.

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Just:

- open up your MacBook
- extract the hard drive
- purchase an external SATA hard drive case
- install the former MacBook hard drive into the case
- plug this external HD into your new computer
- format the HD for a Windows computer

Done!

- Nick

That was exactly what I was going to do, but what about salvaging the music, photo, and video files?

Bberrios said:

That was exactly what I was going to do, but what about salvaging the music, photo, and video files?

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Just use another Mac to copy them off.

In other news, I have a Oyen Digital external drive case with FW800 ports (and FW800 cable) for sale for $40 if you want it. That's less than half price. PM me if you're interested.

i just did that actually, but i got an Air so i don't know if that will make a huge difference, it basically makes you HD like a flash drive and you can access it like you would in your finder/my computer. i doubt its different on PC.

Bberrios said:

That was exactly what I was going to do, but what about salvaging the music, photo, and video files?

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Transfer them to some sort of other storage device/storage media before reformatting the HD.

-Nick

if you just want to use it as an external hard drive i don't think you need to reformat it. he's not going to be running a computer off it, seems like it will just be used for storage. or does it have to be formatted to access it from PC? i don't think, although some stuff might not be viewable but media files should be.

SurReality89 said:

he's not going to be running a computer off it, seems like it will just be used for storage. or does it have to be formatted to access it from PC? i don't think, although some stuff might not be viewable but media files should be.

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OP is switching from a Macintosh computer to a Windows computer. Hard drive formatting for Macintosh computers and Windows computers are different. Some files may be viewable…but for best compatibility…it's best to reformat the HD for the platform it is being used with.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Transfer them to some sort of other storage device/storage media before reformatting the HD.

-Nick

Click to expand...

So you're saying that before I format the drive, I'll be able to see the compatible files (mp3, jpeg, mp4, etc)? I'm just hoping that I don't see the "You're going to have to format this drive before using it" message :-(

i swapped music between my old Dell and my macbook core duo on an external, you shouldn't have any problem viewing you media files. you can also copy your entire hard drive as is to an external (or just leave it, that would make more sense) and boot it up on another mac through the USB...

i haven't done this before but i'm almost certain you can do this, you will have to tell the computer to boot from the hard-drive somehow and restart. i imagine.