well i have gotten a new computer for christmas and my old laptop (KDS) was getting kinda screwy. I had all my family pictures on the old comp (with no backup since the floppy disk drive didnt work and there was no CD burner) and was starting to transfer them to my new one with thumbdrives. i decided to go get an external hard drive (40Gb) and i left the old comp running while i went to the store to get it. My DW came in and saw a blue screen that said dumping internal memory while i was gone and shut it down. Now it says no operating system found when we turn it on. I was going to reboot it with the recovery disk that i have but it said it would delete everything so i didnt do that. what's my next step to recover all my pictures?????????? or is there even a chance to do so? the pictures are all of from when my son was born (2004) to now and while some family may have some of them i know i can't get copies of all of them.

kirby

Is the removable harddisk still connected ? If so disconnect.

Also, what version of the os did you use on the old laptop ?

I won't lie, there is a CHANCE it is pooched. Better chance you can retreive the data files, though. You'll need to use an adapter to mount the old hard drive in. You should be able to use it as an external drive then, and pull your pics off along with your other critical data. However, if you aren't comfortable opening your cases, this is a job best left to someone who knows how and already owns the adaptor. Shouldn't cost too much.

The other option is to download something like BartPE or Knoppix or another bootable OS that has USB drive support with the new machine, burn it to a CD, and get everything off onto the external 40 using that OS. Again, I have to ask if you are comfortable with this procedure. It isn't terribly hard, but it is intimidating becuase most of the OSes in question are LINUX based.

When in doubt, reboot.

Often that works.

i am not comfortable messing with this at all so i guess i will just have to bring it to a professional and have them try and recover it. Best buy says they can do 9 Gb of retrieval for 99$ or unlimited for 169$. I'll just have to wait until i have the money and see if it is retrievable. thanks for your help everyone.

Kirby

Happens a lot when windows doesn't shut down properly.
Get an $20 external enclsure and take the drive out of the laptop and put it in the drive enclosure an then plug into your new PC and copy all your files off of it.

Other people are saying to get an enclosure for your hard drive. Since you are not a computer guru, let me explain this to you...

What you want is a "USB hard drive enclosure." Make sure that you get the kind that works on "ATA" and/or "EIDE" drives (two names for the same thing). You do NOT want one for "SATA" (SATA is relatively new, and you said that your computer was old). If your old computer was a desktop system, you want a model that holds 3-1/2 inch drives. If the old computer was a laptop, you probably want a 2-1/2 inch enclosure.

All you do is take apart your old computer, and remove the hard drive (it is a silver box connected to the motherboard by a large ribbon cable). One side of the box wil be silver with stickers on it, the other side will be a circuit board and chips. You remove this drive, and place it into the enclosure. There will be two cables: power and data. Both are keyed so that you cannot plug them in backwards. Four screws will attach the drive to the enclosure.

Next step is to turn on your new computer, and just plug the enclosure into a USB port. Copy your files off, and you are done.

For extra security, you can re-format your old hard drive, and copy all of your precious files to it about once a month. That way, no matter what happens to your computer, you will still have your files backed up.

I hope this helps.

thanks for the info everyone. Harrkev your explanation makes it sound pretty simple (other than i would have to tear my laptop apart without breaking anything) I may try this if i feel courageous and can find the part that you all are talking about. but i think i may just pay the money when i have it and let the "experts" do it.

as far as the other questions the external HD was bought to get the pictures off faster but the laptop screwed up before i got home with the ExHD. the OS on the laptop was Windows 2000 (I think that's what the OS was as i am not that computer literate other than checking my email and responding to sites like these) I dont even know what LINUX means so yeah that would be a problem for me.

The ExHD will be used to backup the pictures (if i can get them retrieved) and i will also be burning them to CD as the new comp has a burner.

thanks everyone for your info and help

kirby

First, let me make sure I understand the premise of this case correctly. Your old laptop, which contains pictures and other data on its hard disk drive, will no longer boot Windows 2000.

In this case, I wouldn't mess with trying to take apart that laptop… especially if you would like to keep it in working condition. Laptops are fun in that everything has to be taken apart and put back together in a certain order, otherwise you're going to be left with many spare parts on the desk when you finish.

The first thing I would try is to use a Windows 2000 install/boot disk to to a "repaired installation" to the laptop's hard drive partition. (Note that is a "repaired installation", not the "recovery console".)

If that doesn't work, there are other options. Send me a private message if you would like to check out these options.

i don't think i will go the route of doing it myself. I tend to break more than i fix when working with small electrical things (other than welding). as far as using a recovery disk i have to say i don't have one. The laptop used to be my parents and it was passed down to me when they replaced theirs about 3 years ago. So I don't have most of the disks that came with it. The laptop is basically junk anyway my two year old has been found pulling the keys off the keyboard a few times and i have to use an external keyboard on it now. I was planning on junking it when i had the pictures and other data that i wanted off it but now i have to see if it is even retrievable. but thanks for the information.

the only boot disk i had said it would reboot and erase all information that was on the hard drive so i decided that was not a wise decision.

kirby