John H wrote: ↑12 Mar 2019 19:08
YOu do not rely on the disk concerned booting. You add it as an extra drive either by plugging into the appropriate socket OR using an external docking unit. Your current operating system is in charge and subject to a virus scan... You can then manage the content.
Absolutely correct. I would never choose to make a potentially faulty disk bootable. The primary disk in the pc to which the disk concerned is connected needs to be just that - the primary disk.
What we are discussing here is, if a disk is dead and no internals are responding it will never actually be readable again - in any circumstance unless you find an engineer who can replace the on-board disk controller. Connecting a dead disk to another machine leaves you with just that - a dead disk.
Frequently what seems to be a "dead" disk is nothing of the sort. It merely is a disk that will no longer boot. I have cleaned up dozens of such disks... perhaps hundreds.