MY old laptop Hard drive which I think is SATA II freezes pretty much right when any os is loaded.
Anything I can do to make it not freeze? I know if I open it up then it's pretty much dead so I don't know anything I can do.
Try to get your files off of it while you can and cut your losses. For all the more HDDs cost these days just call it a day.
Then again, might not even be the hard drive that is making it freeze. Laptops just die eventually. Cables Unlimited makes a USB to IDE and SATA converter, which is nice to have in situations like these. I think I got mine of Amazon.
Already have everything off it. :/
if it's just that the drive is bad then there's not much you can do, get a new one
if you have everything off of it and saved on another computer try installing linux and make sure it's the drives fualt and not corrupted files
test it with seatools
If it's failing, try copying, if fails there, do the freezer trick, that might give it enough time to copy any important data off. The proper method is to place the HDD in an antistatic bag, and that in a ziploc bag with no air in it, then place it in the freezer for 8+ hours.