Laptop Problems

[greg_in_london]

Hi All,

 

I'm hoping someone has a simple answer to a problem about my laptop. While on holiday the hard drive on my laptop died. I had time before it failed to buy a USB drive and try the windows backup, which took forever and then reported it had not been successful, but had filled a substantial chunk of the USB drive and so presumably saved something.

 

I then tried a third party tool - WinISO I think - though I'm not sure that was any more (or less successful) and am not yet in a position to check.

 

Finally I just manually copied over most of the data, before the computer stopped booting up - it reaches a screen that says a problem has been detected which is before the menu about starting in safe mode. It says it can check for errors, but either does not continue or tells me to contact the manufacturer to see about whether the drive can be fixed.

 

So -

 

If I buy another disk can I use windows restore to get the system and software back ? Do I need Windows 7 installed already or maybe a windows restore disk (I can buy one off Ebay). I didn't get backup disks with the laptop - it was all on the disk.

 

I could just buy another laptop and copy the files over, but anticipate that some of the software (income tax and payroll for my company) might then be lost which would make data recovery difficult).

 

If I use windows restore on a system with windows 7 on it, would it cause conflicts - or can I only do it if there is a working system there ?

 

I want to keep windows 7 (ie not 8.x), so I'm deciding whether to order another drive (about £50), try and get one for spares (£50-150) or just buy another (£250-300).

 

I'm hoping there is an easy answer as I need to be sorted again within a few days.

[GAWildKat]

If someone doesn't pipe up soon I will ask my husband to comment later today/weekend to attempt to assist you. He has successfully done data recovery on some of our systems over the years.

[Money Venture]

If you are replacing the drive, the recovery partition is on the old drive and not on the new one, so no, you can't use Windows recovery. You will need the reinstallation discs. They used to be available for download from Microsoft through Digital River. If you can find someone who has a reinstallation disc of the same version Windows that came with their computer you can use that and your key from your machine. Dell is one that comes to mind that had these available, I am sure there were other OEMs also that did so. I have purchased these from the manufacturer for around $20. You contact the manufacturer of your laptop with the serial number and you can order them that way. Good Luck.

[greg_in_london]

I've asked the manufacturer, but think I may be out of luck as the key number for Windows 7 has been rubbed off the bottom

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Yeah... install new replacement hard drive, next, install OS from recovery discs, then migrate the data from your backups.

 

You DO have backups of this important work-related data....correct?

 

Of course you do...somewhere.

 

[Money Venture]

Can you boot is safe mode at all still? If so you can use Magic Jelly Bean to get the key from the system. If not, a new Win 7 OS disk with key is under $100.

[cowpuc]

Dont know nothing about nothing about computers but I wanted to say HI to Greg In London.

Hi Greg In London ! Thanks for posting, its always fun reading stuff posted from other VR members of other countries!

Puc In North Muskegon Michigan, USA

 

PS - with your computer troubles!

[ragtop69gs]

As long as the drive it's self has not died, most likely it's a windows problem (common) boot the computer to a bootable copy of Ubantu (linix) and you should be able to access and save your data to an external drive. Then zero out the HD and reinstall windows and all drivers. Test for awhile to be sure it's not a bad drive then reinstall all your data.

[calperin]

As long as the drive it's self has not died, most likely it's a windows problem (common) boot the computer to a bootable copy of Ubantu (linix) and you should be able to access and save your data to an external drive. Then zero out the HD and reinstall windows and all drivers. Test for awhile to be sure it's not a bad drive then reinstall all your data.

if Not Ubuntu, you can use any other CD-Live version as CentOS or any other linux.

 

Then you can access the physical drive and then you can back up all that you need before to install a new Hard Drive (HD) with a new Operating System (OS).

 

Knoppix has a powerfull set of tools and it is easy to download (The only problem is that you will need another PC to do that), and it fits on a full CD.

 

Good Luck

[spear]

Huh?

[BlueVenture87]

Recovery disk sets can usually be had from the manufacturer for about 20 bucks. I know HP and Toshiba do this. You'll need the serial number of the computer. (not the windows key so no worries that it's rubbed off.) Get the suspect drive into an external enclosure or install it into another Windows desktop as a second drive and get your files off if you can. Even if the drive looks usable, replace it. Drives are too cheap to screw around. The price you paid to get your taxes done once was likely more expensive. At work I tell my people the drive is worth about a hundred bucks, the data on it is worth your wage multiplied by the years the computer has been in service. Easy to hit 100 K for your data! While the Linux idea is sound you'll need a working PC to download the iso and make the live CD so skip that. If you have another PC to make the Linux CD then you can use it mount your suspect drive instead to get your stuff. If you can see your drive then get your stuff off right away without restarting the host system, the suspect drive might not start up another time! BTW, You got to watch those Linux evangelists, they'll say anything to get you to try it.

 

Best!

 

-JK

[greg_in_london]

Fingers crossed I may be okay. the computer had not been able to actually start, but with a recovery disk we could see the files on the disk. I took it to someone I have used before who has all the necessary tools and doesn't charge too much, so the plan is that he will produce a ghost copy on a new hard drive and install that and then windows should be able to restore any errors once it is on a good drive. Failing that he will do a new copy of windows 7 and put all salvageable data in a directory.

 

I did backup the very core data, but only had limited cloudspace and windows 7 did not allow me to back-up on a network drive, which was a PITA, so there was still a lot that I did not want to lose, even if the loss would not be catastrophic.

 

When I first had the error messages I bought an external drive and tried windows backup and winISO, but I'm not sure that either was 100% successful - I can't really know until I try to "restore" the data. I did make copies of all the libraries though, so only software that saved information elsewhere is a risk.

 

Overall I think I've gotten off lightly, so thanks for the comments and well wishes.

 

Fingers crossed I'll be picking up a working machine tomorrow, though some of the new (and newer) ones on sale today did look tempting...