scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 pc has died ... it wont start up. i have tried the f8 safe mode start up, but still nothing happens. it starts to make all the right noises...the fan starts and i can hear the hard drive trying to do something. its running windows xp and is probably about 5 years old.as usual i cant find the original xp disc to be able to try a re-boot. i have lots of family photos on the hard drive that i dont want to lose, if it is terminal and i need to replace the pc what would i need to do to be able to salvage the contents of the old hard drive. is it just a matter of removing it and getting some sort of lead to be able to transfer data?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spudders Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 I had a similar sounding issue. I took the computer case apart and cleaned out all the dust. It worked fine when I started up after that. I was aslo amazed at how much dust had got inside it. As with you, I paniced that I was never gonna see my files again, so I also bought myself a removable hard drive to back everything up in case of future problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 I had a similar sounding issue. I took the computer case apart and cleaned out all the dust. It worked fine when I started up after that. I was aslo amazed at how much dust had got inside it. As with you, I paniced that I was never gonna see my files again, so I also bought myself a removable hard drive to back everything up in case of future problems. tried that as well... there was lots of dust inside. have brushed and blown as much out as i could . is it worth trying to take out hard drive and give that a bit of a clean up?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFrost Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 (edited) pc has died ... it wont start up. i have tried the f8 safe mode start up, but still nothing happens. it starts to make all the right noises...the fan starts and i can hear the hard drive trying to do something. its running windows xp and is probably about 5 years old.as usual i cant find the original xp disc to be able to try a re-boot. i have lots of family photos on the hard drive that i dont want to lose, if it is terminal and i need to replace the pc what would i need to do to be able to salvage the contents of the old hard drive. is it just a matter of removing it and getting some sort of lead to be able to transfer data?? I don't know how 'IT literate' you are, but I'd check the VGA cable first to make sure it hasn't fallen out the back orhas come loose. They can be surprisingly erratic if not fully screwed in. Do you get anything at all displayed on the screen? If you can't get it going do you have another computer anywhere in the house? If so, you should be able to plug the hard drive (let's call this HD1) of the troublesome PC in to another PC internally, and making sure you boot off the original hard drive in this other machine (let's call this HD2) (using the boot menu, usually hitting repeatedly Esc or del depending on what you have as soon as machine switches on) you can access HD1 from HD2 (providing the HD1 hasn't gone pop although judging by the symptoms this looks unlikely), as a normal folder Depending on their age hard drives are either connected by SATA or IDE cable, if you try this method you may need to invest in one depending on what sort of connector(s) you have on the PC motherboard Edited 31 May, 2010 by JackFrost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dark Sotonic Mills Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/HardDrives-External/HardDriveEnclosures/Novatech/NOV-HDDOCK.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 happy to try to fix, and failing that i can recover your all your docs and pics etc. £10 for recovery. Can quote on repair. All dependant on if your local though i suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 thanks chaps. i am in southampton stevo. i am currently using the daughters notebook. i will have a go at trying to fix it or if all else fails get that docking unit for the hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smirking_Saint Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 When you start it up what exactly is it doing ?? You have said it has died however many peoples perception of a CPU dying is different. Do you get any sort of life on the screen ?? Does the PC make any noises ?? Are there any beep codes etc ?? This can help determine whether or not it is Hardware or software issue, as for recovering the data, TBH if you have not much computer recovery experience i would leave it to someone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFrost Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 (edited) thanks chaps. i am in southampton stevo. i am currently using the daughters notebook. i will have a go at trying to fix it or if all else fails get that docking unit for the hard drive. How old is the PC? Because if it is quite a few years old the HD might have an IDE connector on it and if so that SATA docking station won't be any good because it's for SATA drives only Check if the actual hard drive has one of these (SATA) or one of these (IDE) Edited 31 May, 2010 by JackFrost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 When you start it up what exactly is it doing ?? You have said it has died however many peoples perception of a CPU dying is different. Do you get any sort of life on the screen ?? Does the PC make any noises ?? Are there any beep codes etc ?? This can help determine whether or not it is Hardware or software issue, as for recovering the data, TBH if you have not much computer recovery experience i would leave it to someone else. its about 5 years old and yes it does make a few noises. the fan starts to run and i get a few noises that i asume are the hard drive.the only display i get is a screen with collums of numbers and list of things like IDE Cntrlr....Multimedia Device...USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr and so on!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 How old is the PC? Because if it is quite a few years old the HD might have an IDE connector on it and if so that SATA docking station won't be any good because it's for SATA drives only Check if the actual hard drive has one of these (SATA) or one of these (IDE) can i see this without removing the hard drive or do i need to take it out?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smirking_Saint Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 its about 5 years old and yes it does make a few noises. the fan starts to run and i get a few noises that i asume are the hard drive.the only display i get is a screen with collums of numbers and list of things like IDE Cntrlr....Multimedia Device...USB 1.0/1.1 OHCI Cntrlr and so on!! Do you have any beep codes ?? Does the fan stay on or pulsate ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smirking_Saint Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 can i see this without removing the hard drive or do i need to take it out?? Look at the back of the HD If it has this it is SATA Or this IDE - It may look slightly different to that cable, it may be 80pin but they pretty much look similar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weston Super Saint Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MB950B/A?mco=MTM3NDc3MDM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 Do you have any beep codes ?? Does the fan stay on or pulsate ?? no beeps that i can tell and yes the fan stays on all the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 well my offer is on the table Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 Look at the back of the HD If it has this it is SATA Or this IDE - It may look slightly different to that cable, it may be 80pin but they pretty much look similar its the one with the ribbon type cable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 well my offer is on the table cheers mate ... i will probably have to take u up on the offer.. if u can recover photos and files, what do u recover them to, is it to a disc or on to a flash drive?? if i cant fix the pc which looks likely then will have to bite the bullet and prob get a laptop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFrost Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 its the one with the ribbon type cable then you don't want to buy any SATA docks without any sort of SATA-IDE adapter If you can get access to another PC which has an IDE Port on the motherboard, one that would look vaguely like this then all you need to do is remove the hard drive and cable and plug it in to this other PC and boot off whatever hard drive is already in the other machine. You should then be able to access your photos, as your hard drive should appear as a folder on the other hard drive. Or go into the boot menu on the other PC, and boot off your hard drive and transfer the photos to a USB stick or whatever. If you aren't sure get assistance though. With your PC though, if you haven't tried it already, turn it off, disconnect it from the mains and leave for 5 mins. It's a long shot but its suprising how many problem sit solves. Then check for any loose cables in the base unit/monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smirking_Saint Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 cheers mate ... i will probably have to take u up on the offer.. if u can recover photos and files, what do u recover them to, is it to a disc or on to a flash drive?? if i cant fix the pc which looks likely then will have to bite the bullet and prob get a laptop TBH i would just let Stevo have a look at it, i could probably get you close to recovering it but seeing as i am not looking at the PC i don't want to cause the loss of any data etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Landrew Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 cheers mate ... i will probably have to take u up on the offer.. if u can recover photos and files, what do u recover them to, is it to a disc or on to a flash drive?? if i cant fix the pc which looks likely then will have to bite the bullet and prob get a laptop All that you has said has made sense until you said that. Why on earth get something that will cost more, perform less well, be more restrictive in choice of spec, be harder to upgrade, and costlier to maintain or repair, while being, almost certainly, less reliable..? All those cons for one pro - just because it is portable [oh, and everybody else has one]..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 PM me, ill take a look at the P.C this week, if i can fix it without buying anything, then ill charge you £30 max. £10 to recover the files, depending on how much there is on there then probably chuck it on a DVD or 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Landrew Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 PM me, ill take a look at the P.C this week, if i can fix it without buying anything, then ill charge you £30 max. £10 to recover the files, depending on how much there is on there then probably chuck it on a DVD or 3 Your rates are very chummy, SS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 Your rates are very chummy, SS. Only do it for beer money really, plus if you do a good job and don't charge much there is more chance for repeat business. Done a few from this forum previously so it works out quite well, always happy to help out a saints fan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 umm.....random but Scaramanga is your nickname G-Rat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Landrew Posted 31 May, 2010 Share Posted 31 May, 2010 Only do it for beer money really, plus if you do a good job and don't charge much there is more chance for repeat business. Done a few from this forum previously so it works out quite well, always happy to help out a saints fan! Know what you mean. I have basic free membership to my sailing club because I look after the other members PCs. They don't go wrong either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaramanga Posted 31 May, 2010 Author Share Posted 31 May, 2010 umm.....random but Scaramanga is your nickname G-Rat? no its not mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 7 June, 2010 Share Posted 7 June, 2010 all sorted then now? Not heard back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SO16_Saint Posted 7 June, 2010 Share Posted 7 June, 2010 all sorted then now? Not heard back? think you scared him off by calling him a rat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsdinho Posted 7 June, 2010 Share Posted 7 June, 2010 Stevo - a friend of mine is always banging on about seeing G-Rat in town. I assume he is a DJ.... Do you him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 7 June, 2010 Share Posted 7 June, 2010 I have G-Rat as a friend on Facebook for some reason. He is a DJ. Just so happened that at the same time as this thread was going he updated his status saying his P.C had died and needed a lead to get his files off. So i put 2 and 2 together and got 697 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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