Testing laptop HD with PC

Please excuse my ignorance on the subject -- that's what I'm here.

A friend of mine is here with her laptop (Compaq/Vista) that refuses to boot. I'm attempting to help her the best I can.

I have removed the HD from her laptop and connected it to my PC (Custom built/XP) via SATA cable. The HD has two sections for connectors -- the SATA only connects to the larger of the two sections. Upon connecting the HD to the SATA cable, I can feel and hear the HD begin to run. I then navigate to 'My Computer', but the laptop HD does not appear under 'Hard Disk Drives', as I figured it would/should.

I am lost as to where to go from here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You in advance.

After talking with someone else, I may be going about this the wrong way. I'm just trying to see if the HD is garbage, or if the issue is with another area of the laptop. I'm so lost.

When I go in Safe Mode, it takes me to Startup Repair -- in a round-a-bout way. The Startup Repair is now searching for problems. It says it can take up to an hour or so, so I'll be here a while.

Edited by TripleDigitRide, 08 January 2010 - 08:25 PM.

Option 1: If you are sure that the rest of her laptop's hardware components are alright, you can use a Linux based LiveCD (like Knoppix) to boot up and access the hard disk.

Option 2: If you are going to attempt connecting the laptop's hard disk to a PC, please go through the below link:
Connecting a 2.5" laptop HD to a PC

Hope this helps.

If the SATA drive is working, properly connected...and partitioned, you should see it in My Computer.

If not, then it's probably time for moving data via recovery software, soon followied by a hard drive diagnostic.

Although SATA drives may be hot swappable...I would tend to connect/disconnect a drive only with the system powered down.

Louis

When I go in Safe Mode, it takes me to Startup Repair -- in a round-a-bout way. The Startup Repair is now searching for problems. It says it can take up to an hour or so, so I'll be here a while.

Is this after you connect the laptop hard disk to a PC?

I'm am in the process of returning the laptop to it's original/factory state.

It says:

- Reformatting the Windows partition of your hard disk drive
- Reinstalling original content.

Estimated time remaining: 80 minute(s).

I guess we'll see if this works.

That took care of it. May have lost some files, but at least the laoptop can be used again.