Computers Died

my packard bell laptop has suddenly died (refuses to turn on ) unfortunately most of my pictures are still on the hard drive ! (i was only looking in currys last week at a 1tb external hard drive to back up my files !)what i want to know is what is the likelihood of retrieving said files from the hard drive ?
regards, tim.

Provided the hard disk is not the problem, I would think quite good.

If you remove the hard disk from the laptop, use an adapter to connect it to your PC, transfer files, refit hard disk back into laptop get laptop repaired.

Regards

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Colin

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

colin where would i be able to get an adaptor from ?
regards, tim.

Hi, I found this type of thing not sure about the hard disk in your laptop. That is the type of unit I would use (just about to do the same thing for a friend)

Hope this helps

BR

Edit; PC World or Maplins may sell them as well.

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Colin

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

That should work. Virtually all laptops use a 2.5" hard drive - even most netbooks (desktops use 3.5" because it's cheaper for a given capacity)

Aren't the connectors the same as on a PC, if so you could just connect it that way.
Although the case and use it as a portable is also pretty nifty

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Stefan


K10D, K5
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, D-FA 100 Macro, DA 40 Ltd, DA 18-55
AF-540FGZ

Since the HDD has either IDE or SATA connector, you need an adaptor to connect the HDD to the USB port.

Most adaptors will accept both HDD types, and normally power can be taken from the USB port.

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Best regards
Terry

K20D, Optio I10, DA 18-55 1:3.5-5.6 AL II, A 1:1.7/50, D FA 1:2.8/100 Macro, Sigma 70-300 1:4-5.6 APO DG Macro, Pentax AF 360FGZ

As long as the Hard Drive is OK then getting any data that was on it wouldnt be a problem unless you had password protected user accounts, and definately not if you had activated any file privacy settings.

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My Names Alan, and I'm a lensaholic.
My PPG link
My Flckr link

An easy task - but you need to know if the drive is IDE or SATA. Once you have established which just get the right adapter - don't worry about a case.

Provided you have not password protected the drive you will be able to recover everything from all accounts - but you will need to work through the whole disk to gather it all.

Make sure you don't delete any files from the disk apart from data.



But before you do anything - battery out and try on mains only. If that fails, check that the memory is correctly installed, all removable drives are fully home.

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.
K20D, *istD, MZ-S, Super-A, ME Super, MX
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, DA* 300,
DA 50-200, FA 24-90, FA 20-35,
M 400-600, A 50 f1.4, A 28 f2.8, A 70-210, M 35-80, M 50 f1.7
A x2S teleconverter and a few others ...

there could a few reasons why it wont turn on, 1 your graphics chip has blown, 2 your HDD, those are the 2 main ones i know of as an ex pc tech. Have it taken into pc world or an independent pc repair shop and explain it to them and im sure they will help you out.

Your files will be easy to recover providing you have the right software and a backup off your files...

And with regards to the 1TB USB HDD dude, go for it. As mentioned about using an adapter I wouldnt advise it, it could end up frying your laptops HDD and then you're screwed.

Get a techy to look at it they will be of use to you

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Camera: *ist DS,MZ-50,
Lenses: D-Xenon 50-200mm 4/5.6, pentax smc a 50mm 1.7, Kiron 70-210mm, Pentax SMC DAL 18-55, Asahi 2x Rear tele-converter, Sirius M42 135mm macro, M42 extension tubes 61mm,
Flash: Jessops 360 AFdc
MY WEBSITE

RUBBISH ...

Can you explain why you make such ridiculous statements. And then suggesting going to PC World - you have a lot to learn and understand.

The adapters are designed to allow individual drives to be temporarily attached to other PCs and data to be read or written.

You can only list two reasons why it will not turn on ... anyone with reasonable experience could list a lot more and you have even failed to list the two most common faults that stop a laptop starting.

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.
K20D, *istD, MZ-S, Super-A, ME Super, MX
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, DA* 300,
DA 50-200, FA 24-90, FA 20-35,
M 400-600, A 50 f1.4, A 28 f2.8, A 70-210, M 35-80, M 50 f1.7
A x2S teleconverter and a few others ...

i can because i just happened to have tried the adaptor and it fried my hdd when trying to transfer data, secondly those are the 2 common causes and third if it is taken to a reputable company with techs with more exp than i have they will be held liable for any damages and will be able to rectify the problem.

I on the other hand have 4 yrs hardware support behind me, and on top of that an mcse.

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Camera: *ist DS,MZ-50,
Lenses: D-Xenon 50-200mm 4/5.6, pentax smc a 50mm 1.7, Kiron 70-210mm, Pentax SMC DAL 18-55, Asahi 2x Rear tele-converter, Sirius M42 135mm macro, M42 extension tubes 61mm,
Flash: Jessops 360 AFdc
MY WEBSITE

4 years experience WOW ... it obviously taught you very little. And maybe it was the user that caused the drive to "fry" when using an adapter.

The adapters are no different to the drive to PC and power interface that external drives use - they just don't have a drive connected or case.

So, you contradict yourself - don't use the adapter to read you disk, but get an adapter with drive attached.

PC World held liable for damage - get real. I would not trust them to change a fuse.

Those are NOT the two most common causes - in over 25 years I have rarely seen a blown graphics chip. A HDD failure will NOT stop a PC booting as it should fail over to a floppy or CD drive.

The two most common problems are power failure normally caused by the battery failing and even when mains power applied it will not permit booting or secondly badly seated memory which happens frequently on laptops.

And what magical software would you suggest he uses to recover the data? Maybe it is able to read the disk without applying power to it because that is where the OP has all of his data stored.

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.
K20D, *istD, MZ-S, Super-A, ME Super, MX
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, DA* 300,
DA 50-200, FA 24-90, FA 20-35,
M 400-600, A 50 f1.4, A 28 f2.8, A 70-210, M 35-80, M 50 f1.7
A x2S teleconverter and a few others ...

It would not do any harm for this to be a civil discussion. It's not necessary to be so aggressive.

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Best regards, John

I wouldn't trust PCWorld/Dixons/Currys as far as I could throw them


I suspect that if the OP had a backup of his files he wouldn't be asking us how to get them off the original hard drive


The external hard drives one buys are no different than the drive enclosure linked above: an IDE (or occasionally SATA these days) hard drive enclosure, with a USB output. The only difference is that the drive is already in the enclosure and the enclosure isn't designed to be opened.


PC World staff aren't techies: they are known to (with a straight face) recommend Norton Internet Security as a protection against computer problems rather than the cause of more