Repair broken I need to know what piece or product to buy to transfer my data from the broken hard drive to a new one.

Hi, if you can hear the drive spinning up but then making a clicking noise this means the heads have failed, this would need to be opened up (ideally in a clean room), if the platters are okay you can replace the heads... but if your data is precious to you I would reccomend sending it to a data recovery company Digital Recovery (www.digitalrecovery.co.nz) are fairly good.

No you don't need too, but you might want to copy all your documents, music and pictures to your new computer.

Looks like you have a major problem. Do not reformat the hard drive with a new system restore/install. This will wipe all your data off the hard drive.
FIRST STEP: If the hard drive is still operational, you will probably still be able to get to all your useful data and make a copy of it. Then you can perform a system restore/install and transfer the data back to the newly-installed system's hard drive.

If you need to access the data on the laptop in a hurry, then the easiest thing to do is get access to another (2nd) computer, take out the hard drive from the failed laptop, put it into a portable drive carrier with USB connection (you can buy this from a computer shop) and access the data on the hard drive that way via the 2nd computer. That can be a real help when your laptop is not working and I have used it on several occasions when I or my customers have had a broken/failed laptop.

SECOND STEP: Once you have copied all your data that you need from the failed laptop's hard drive, you can put it back in the laptop and perform a system restore/install and transfer the data back to the newly-installed system's hard drive.

Good luck!

You won't be able to transfer hard drive data by plugging one computer into another via USB. In order to transfer data, you will need to remove the hard drive from the Toshiba Satellite Pro, use an external hard drive enclosure, and attach that to your new computer with any USB cable.
The hard drive can be taken out by removing screws on the bottom of your laptop. The drive can be found in the bottom left of this picture: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/toshiba-satellite-a205/big/toshiba-satellite-a200-a205-02.jpg
Here is an example of the exclosure you would need: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816013

The lights signal data transfer so no lights = no transfer. It's clear that the hard disk inside your Passport has failed and, since it can't be repaired, all the data was lost and the unit is dead.
Buy a new one.

You can buy another external housing and then just swap the hard drive itself over to the new housing. The housing only cost in the 30 buck range if not cheaper. If you need to get the data off, you can also buy an EIDE/SATA to USB adapter that will allow the connection between an unhoused hard drive and a computer. CompUSA sells them for around 20-25 bucks.

Will replacing the data-cable replace the broken-off piece?

If not, then for about $30, you can buy a new "empty" external case, and then "transplant" your current disk-space into the new case.
Take your current external drive to the computer-store, so that the new case that you buy will be the correct case for your existing disk-drive.

Of course, because you have a "small" (100GB) disk-drive, any warranty for the disk-drive probably has expired, and it would be good "preventative-maintenance" to buy a new external disk-drive, before your current disk-drive unexpectedly "quits" on you.

You need to purchase an external enclosure and install the old laptop hard drive in it. Then plug it into your desktop and copy the files .
Buy it here:
http://www.cyberguys.com/product-search/?keyword=hard+drive+enclosures

Click on this link or copy and paste the complete link into your browser.
If I could be of further assistance, let me know. If this helps or solves the issue, please rate it.
Thanks, Joe


I’m happy to assist further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/joe_8b8c2cd6ce148309

You should immediately buy another hard drive. Reload the new one with your OS, programs, drivers. Cable Select them with the new one as master and old as slave. Transfer your data files to the new hard drive. Do this before it's too late and the drive crashes completely. It's only a matter of time.

well...file transfer is built into all new windows boxes. and you can get xp on your new laptop too.