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Taking a laptop's SSD and making it an external drive (feddit.uk)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Recently my laptop died. Thankfully, the issue wasn't the SSD. So I bought an external enclosure, took the SSD out of the laptop, and popped it into the external enclosure. I was hoping at that point, it would "just work".

I was hoping that when I plug it into my steam deck in desktop mode, it would recognise it and I could get some files off of it. Well, just one file really, my Sims 4 save. But it isn't recognised at all.

Is there anything I can do to get the save file off of the SSD? I can borrow someone else's (windows) laptop if necessary, though it didn't recognise it last time I plugged it in there either.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

One thing that I don't believe has been brought up: Is the disk encrypted? If so, do you have the key? You'll need that.

If encrypted + Windows and if you can't boot on another machine to get the data, you may need to make a DART disk + computer + encryption key to get at your data: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/dart-v10/

If it's not encrypted but the wrong format, you'd need to copy the data with an OS that can read whatever your file system is first or give your Steam Deck the ability to read NTFS or whatever (supposedly it's natively supported but it might take some doing), then copy it over to something that your Steam Deck can read, but only after you install the game (provided it hasn't been backed up on Steam's cloud storage of course), you'd copy that saved data back to the correct installed path.

If you're certain it's in a readable format and unencrypted, I'd recommend troubleshooting whatever sled/adapter you're using. Does it work with other drives? Does it work with other devices? If not, you might have a busted sled/adapter.

I would also add there are some solid suggestions already posted here when it comes to the specifics of the Steam Deck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is the disk encrypted? If so, do you have the key?

I believe it is encrypted, but I was able to get the key from my Microsoft account

you may need to make a DART disk + computer + encryption key to get at your data

I'll have to have a proper look into that, I've never done anything like that before. Thank you for the suggestion!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you aren't tech savvy, that key + DART might be your "easiest" course of action.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Having a look around on that link, when I try to download DART, I'm asked to log in with a work or school account, personal ones aren't allowed. It also sounds like it needs a subscription. So, not sure if this will work for me, or if I just clicked the wrong thing.

I did find an article here that details how to decrypt a drive that's been encrypted with bitlocker, do you think that would work?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Wow, they won't let you use DART with a personal account? That's fucked. Thanks for the link! I don't see why it wouldn't work.