UUGH! My hard drive crashed.

[mom2boys]

I am muddling my way through attempting to salvage the hard drive. I can't get into Windows. Fortunately, I have internet access through my kids' computer. Any suggestions on how to get into windows when all I get is a screen saying F10 Boot Menu F2 BIOS Settings? These led to a couple more screens & then a screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. All of our pictures are on that hard drive

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

I asked my boyfriend (who I know has done this multiple times)... and he said to tell you the following:

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Remove the hard drive from the computer that does not work... and install into the kid's computer that does work (as a second hard drive). When you boot the computer that does work, the additional "bad" hard drive should load as a secondary hard drive and you should be able to read the contents (if it's not toooo messed up). Then you can drag/copy the documents/data/etc that you want onto the good hard drive.

If it doesn't work, check to make sure that the good hard drive's jumpers are set to Master and the bad ones set to Slave.

You can run a DiscUtility (FDisk) on the second hard drive to determine if it has bad sectors. If it passes that, it's probably just Windows that got foobared, and then you can re-install Windows on the first hard drive.

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(In my opinion... some of this may require some Google searches on the keywords mentioned above for more info (such as how to set the hard drive jumpers), or your local computer geek. Good luck! It can be done! )

 

[mom2boys]

Thanks for the suggestion. My dead hard drive is on a laptop & my boys have a desktop. I will look into this.

 

[Forevryoung]

I know it is after the fact now (possibly) but for everyone else out there my suggestion is this:

Purchase an external Hard Drive!!!!!

Put everything important on that with a copy on your computer hard drive. They are really super cheap on sale ($40 or so for a small one) I am tired of "loosing everything" when my hard drive crashes (I have had to do it three times in less than three years).

It's a great backup system.

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

Evidently you can buy an adapter for about $5-$20 which will allow you to put the laptop hard drive into a regular desktop computer. FYI.

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

i.e usually called a "2.5 to 3.5 adapter"....
something like this: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/la2tode3hadr.html
or
http://www.mittoni.com.au/25-to-35-ide-hard-drive-hdd-adapter-p-1296.html
or
http://www.impactcomputers.com/2-5---3-5-hard-drive-adapter-kit.html
etc etc etc... a google search found TONS. Your favorite local computer/electronics/etc store should have them.

 

[mom2boys]

You guys are great. Thanks!