"no bootable device."

[perdxxblade]

is what I got when inserting an old hard drive into my laptop for fetching files that I absolutely have to have.

Does this mean I won't be able to use an enclosure to retrieve these files if I were to buy one?

Someone told me that I might have to boot some sort of OS on it in order to be able to scan the drive, but when I took it to Best Buy yesterday they were able to detect the data on it...and said it worked - but I didn't have access to what they were looking at.

Will I be okay if I connect it via USB?

I really don't want to waste my money on an enclosure only for it to not work

 

[porterjw]

...Will I be okay if I connect it via USB?...

Yes.

Did you remove the laptop's primary drive and plug this into it? If so, that's your problem. The files are still there, but you need to connect it to a running system (either via USB or Motherboard SATA) in order to access the drive, otherwise your laptop is looking at it as the Primary Drive, not finding the info the laptop's MoBo thinks/knows should be on the Primary Drive, and tripping that error.

 

[eli573]

I'd get a flash drive/DVD (if DVD drive is available on the laptop) and an external drive. You need to get an Ubuntu iso and burn it to the DVD or flash drive. Then, boot Ubuntu and copy the files to the external drive, and do what ever, copy it to your own internal drive. Hope this helps.

 

[perdxxblade]

Yes.

Did you remove the laptop's primary drive and plug this into it? If so, that's your problem. The files are still there, but you need to connect it to a running system (either via USB or Motherboard SATA) in order to access the drive, otherwise your laptop is looking at it as the Primary Drive, not finding the info the laptop's MoBo thinks/knows should be on the Primary Drive, and tripping that error.

oh okay, cool.

Yeah, that's what I did. I kinda thought that could have been the issue although I just wanted to be sure; what I have on here would be a decade of lost work if I were to lose it