Recently my internal hard drive crashed. (Seagate Momentus 5400.3, 80 GB) It was installed into a 2003 Toshiba Satellite A45-S130. Instead of buying a new harddrive i went ahead and bought a newer toshiba all together, Toshiba Satellite A300 Series

Now, all my files and programs that ive ever utilized and looked over were on this old Toshiba. I wanted to know if there were a way to retrieve these files and/or programs from my old Toshiba and transfer them somehow to my new toshiba.
On this old thoshiba i had two harddrives in which to store files and programs; a system c:/ and a system f:/ i believe it was. Mostly all my dearest files where contained in system c:/, but i dont know if system c:/ is this crashed 80 GB harddrive.

Can the memory chips within the laptop hold files as well?

is there any other memory storage in my computer that can hold files and programs besides this crashed harddrive?

If there was another chip or harddrive that held files, is there a way that i could switch the particular memory storage and install it into my newer toshiba and retrieve those files?

Is there a way i can troubleshoot this crashed 80 GB harddrive and get it working again?

any links and advice to troubleshoot, retrieve files, and ways to inspect this computer more would be greatly appreciated. thank you.

i had two harddrives in which to store files and programs; a system c:/ and a system f:/

Are you sure you had two hard drives? Or did you have a single hard drive that was "partitioned"? From Windows perspective, partitions are treated as separate drives, and are assigned separate drive letters. Most laptops only have one physical hard drive.

I wanted to know if there were a way to retrieve these files and/or programs from my old Toshiba and transfer them somehow to my new toshiba.

The problem is, you said the original HD crashed. So, depending on how damaged it is, and how much money you want to spend, you may or may not be able to retrieve your old files off it.

Probably the easiest thing to do is to attach your old hard drive to a PC using a Laptop to IDE Hard Drive Adapter. Then the laptop's HD will show up under the PC's My Computer, and files can be copy and pasted to the PC. You can then do the reverse for the new HD to copy the files to your system, or connect both the PC and laptop to a common network and transfer files, or burn a CD/DVD with your files.

Can the memory chips within the laptop hold files as well?

Yes and no. There are several types of memory used in a computer. The main "system" memory is RAM - for Random Access Memory and the key thing here for you to remember is that all data stored in RAM is lost when power is removed. So, as far as you retrieving any data (files and programs), hard drives are the only storage devices you need to be worried about - assuming there are no external storage devices attached such as a memory sticks, thumb drives, or external USB or Firewire drives.

Is there a way i can troubleshoot this crashed 80 GB hard drive

Yes.

and get it working again?

I don't know - that depends on what is wrong with it. At this point, since any use of the drive risks [further] corruption, the goal is to retrieve any salvageable files you don't want to lose - assuming you have not been making regular backups of your important files and documents in the event of just such a failure. The safest way to do this is to install the suspect drive as a slave or secondary drive in a PC, then copy the files over - this minimizes the risk of writing to the drive, and potentially corrupting data.

Seagate created SeaTools to test Seagate and Maxtor drives. There are a couple versions, depending on how you wish to test it. I prefer the DOS method as it allows you to boot the machine into DOS (instead of Windows) so you can test a bad boot drive - the floppy version is easiest, and just another reason to keep a floppy drive around.

There are data recovery programs that work to various degrees. Or you can take the drive to a data recovery center, pay BIG bucks, and they can do a "forensics" data analysis for you to recover anything that is left. Depending on the value of the data stored, paying several $1000s for such services may be a bargain deal!

I have to say that you definatly helped me a great deal on this matter! Thank you very much! I think ill go with the cable adapter and the seatools and thatll be about as far as ill go. I just have alot of pictures and whatnot that cant be replaced but hey, i learned my lesson. ill deffinatly be making some backup disks in the future. well...stay educated my friend.

Thank you very much!

You're welcome and good luck.

Oh, EIDE (also called IDE, ATA, or PATA) drives are installed as a Master, if one drive on a cable, or as Master and Slave if two drives on a cable. The Master or Slave assignment is determined by the position of the drive on the cable. If connected to the cable's end opposite the motherboard, it is a Master, if the center connection is used, it is a Slave. If only one drive, it will be a Master.

The drives themselves must be set to Master or Slave so they match their cable position. There are two ways to do this, both requiring positioning of a small jumper block on the back of the drives.

The 2 options are Cable Select (CS) and Master/Slave (MA/SL). You use one or the other, but never both on the same cable. That is, if using CS, both drives must be set to CS. If using Master/Slave, one drive must be set to MA, and if a second drive is to be connected to the same cable, it must be set to Slave. There is no performance advantage to either one.

It may sound a bit confusing, but once you see the jumpers, it is not. The point is, you will have to determine how the PC is setup first (number of drives and current jumper setup), then you will know whether to use CS or MA/SL. This will probably require you to remove the existing PC drive so you can see the back and determine if CS or MA/SL is being used. Always remember to unplug the computer before adding or removing hardware, and make sure you touch bare metal of the case interior BEFORE anything else, to discharge any destructive static build up in your body.