[Chester LUG] Getting files off a sata hard drive

[George]

Roger Gibson wrote:
> Hi folks.
> 
> I'm in a fix and trying to go off next week.
> 
> At a Charity I help, a 9 month old PC has gone down totally dead, 
> although there is a light showing inside.

This would make me suspect the suspect the PSU. Don't let the light fool 
you - they frequently show just enough power to light an LED on the 
motherboard or the front of the case but they won't switch on when you 
press the power button.

 > I did
> not realise how easy it is to get Word files etc off the fixed hard 
> disc.  Shows how necessary it is to use encryption with Windows.

And with Linux for that matter :)

> However this machine is dead dead.  I've tried on Patrick's (he is the 
> young lad who came with me a couple of times, and is now a total Linux 
> convert) home made machine, which uses IDE as /hda1 etc, but has SATA 
> sockets, but I can not get the bios to see the SATA drive.

As you say their machine is very new I would examine the drive (or look 
on the manufacturer's website) to see if it mentions a jumper to switch 
between SATA and SATA-II behavior. If Patrick's machine is an older one 
then it might only be able to see the drives in SATA mode.

I would also go through the BIOS and double check that all the onboard 
SATA chipsets are enabled and set to look for drives etc. simple stuff 
like that.

When you booted up the machine did the drive spin up as you would 
expect? If it is the PSU that's gone there is a chance that it's done 
for your drive as well.

George