My computer crashed last night...

duchess15

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On top of everything else going on - my computer crashed last night. I had bought a hard drive (external) because I knew this was coming, but had not yet transferred my important pictures over. I know - it is completely my fault and I am so mad. I can't get it to restart at all.

I was going to call all the computer repair shops in the area to see if I could have someone take a look at it and see if they could possibly repair/restore it and if not, get it up to where I can at least take my important items off.

Does anyone else know if it is even possible to restore and what other places I could try? I was going to try Best Buy also.

This just totally bites...
 

pami

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You could call the manufacturer of you computer directly and see if they can, if you cant get anyone to do it locally. Sometimes it can be saved and sometimes it cant and sometimes only certain things can. It all depends on why it crashed.
 

larussa

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I'M sorry this happened to you and I don't have an answer but recently I was worried about crashing too, you just never know when it's going to happen. Anyway I never knew how to back up my system until I saw something on QVC (a television shopping station). It is called Click Free and it backs up everything in no time at all. I watched this product for over a year and finally decided to purchase it. It cost right around $100 and works very easily. No software to contend with, just plug it into one of your ports and one into the click free and you're done, just watch everything get picked up and saved. It's not much bigger than a pack of cigerettes. Just thought I'd share.
 
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duchess15

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Originally Posted by LaRussa

I'M sorry this happened to you and I don't have an answer but recently I was worried about crashing too, you just never know when it's going to happen. Anyway I never knew how to back up my system until I saw something on QVC (a television shopping station). It is called Click Free and it backs up everything in no time at all. I watched this product for over a year and finally decided to purchase it. It cost right around $100 and works very easily. No software to contend with, just plug it into one of your ports and one into the click free and you're done, just watch everything get picked up and saved. It's not much bigger than a pack of cigerettes. Just thought I'd share.
I already have an external hard drive at home. I am just going to have them restore it so I can get my files off and use my mom's computer instead. It is newer and just collecting dust anyway.
 

crazyforinfo

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Originally Posted by Duchess15

I already have an external hard drive at home. I am just going to have them restore it so I can get my files off and use my mom's computer instead. It is newer and just collecting dust anyway.
Other than self owned computer stores there is Best Buy. Best Buy is NOT responsible if they lose your data and can't retrieve it. Just an FYI. Is it not turning on at all?
 
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duchess15

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Originally Posted by Crazyforinfo

Other than self owned computer stores there is Best Buy. Best Buy is NOT responsible if they lose your data and can't retrieve it. Just an FYI. Is it not turning on at all?
It turns on, but I can't start it up because of a system config file that is either lost or corrupt which I have been seeing the message for quite some time. I think when I tried to use the webcam, it just finally crashed.
 

2dogmom

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If the hard drive is ok (meaning you can read from it but not boot) then you are in luck. All you have to do is find a working computer (like from a friend) and put your HD in as a slave. Get a USB flash drive and transfer all the stuff you want onto that.
 

strange_wings

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Try downloading and burning a linux live disc. Then boot your computer directly from that - you'll be able to access your hard drives and copy to another device, nothing installs if you don't tell it to, it's free and easier than removing a hard drive if you've never done so before.
The reason I suggest this is because by booting from a live disc you will have a fully functioning computer, programs, drivers, internet access, and even games if you so choose.


In the future always partition your hard drives. C should be for nothing but the OS and programs, this way if you have to reinstall windows that's all that you lose.
 

crazyforinfo

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

Try downloading and burning a linux live disc. Then boot your computer directly from that - you'll be able to access your hard drives and copy to another device, nothing installs if you don't tell it to, it's free and easier than removing a hard drive if you've never done so before.
The reason I suggest this is because by booting from a live disc you will have a fully functioning computer, programs, drivers, internet access, and even games if you so choose.


In the future always partition your hard drives. C should be for nothing but the OS and programs, this way if you have to reinstall windows that's all that you lose.
Partitioning wouldn't help since it's still physically the same HD.
Originally Posted by 2dogmom

If the hard drive is ok (meaning you can read from it but not boot) then you are in luck. All you have to do is find a working computer (like from a friend) and put your HD in as a slave. Get a USB flash drive and transfer all the stuff you want onto that.
Yep which is what I was going to PM next. It's very easy putting a HD in a pc. Or since you said you wanted to use your mom's pc just copy the files from the old to the new when you plug it in. You just have to plug in the power cord and the ribbon cable which are already inside the pc.
 

gailc

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When my computer wouldn't start due to a Windows error the Microsoft tech was able to pull my files off which I'm now in the process of moving back. I had bought a portable hard drive and copied all the files (not in corrrect place) right away-just in case.

I think my pics are all there-I'm going to save them again on some flash drives too.
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by Crazyforinfo

Partitioning wouldn't help since it's still physically the same HD.
It does when you start having problems and know something is going to mess up, such as the OP did - otherwise she wouldn't have thought to buy an external HD.
 

crazyforinfo

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

It does when you start having problems and know something is going to mess up, such as the OP did - otherwise she wouldn't have thought to buy an external HD.
what does having an external hard drive have to do with anything? we are talking about one physical drive, partitioned into two logical drives, where one logical partition contains the OS (C) and the other logical partition contains other data (D). It is still one physical drive. Drive failure is not isolated to logical partitions it is a problem with the physical volume, the actual "you can hold it in your hand" hard drive. partitioning does nothing to prevent this.

Sabrina....did you figure a solution yet?
 

strange_wings

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^This is what the external drive had to do with it. As she stated in three separate post, this wasn't a spontaneous problem. And if the computer can be restored (as she also said she was going to attempt to have a shop do) than that wouldn't be a physical problem with the HD, would it? If the HD isn't ruined you can access partitions, just not with the corrupted OS on the drive itself - I've had to do this several times over the years because of early XP was a POS that even got messed up by the terrible patches Microsoft was releasing weekly. Various malware and everything getting fragmented over years of use can also cause system config files to get messed up.
Originally Posted by Duchess15

I had bought a hard drive (external) because I knew this was coming
 

wellingtoncats

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My laptop crashed last week too. I haven't got any money to have it fixed at the moment and it was the first laptop I had brought by myself.
 
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