PLEASE Help!! If there are any laptop geniuses/computer whizzes here....

[lildreamer316]

We REALLY need your advice. I posted at length about the problem here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=242x9832

Yes, he should have backed it up--and most of his music was on the home computer,but not all of it,and it will take weeks to recover the music that was NOT backed up at home.
Please, we are desperate.

[CBGLuthier]

1. OK, not near enough info but a few thoughts to keep

Sorry, but the computer world is about exactness so exactly what error message and all that will be needed to help.

Unless you have had a catastrophic hard drive failure, at the very worst, a skilled tech can take the hard drive out of the computer and get the files back by plugging it into another computer.

There are other approaches too but again you will need some help.

So there is hope, just not much for tonight.

Now get those exact error messages posted and we will see if we can help. Also, what operating system would be good to know.

Any other issues that may have been happening prior to this and if it is making any unusual sounds.

[lildreamer316]

4. As soon as I get

back on the phone with him (probably when he gets to work in a few minuites) I will get the exact error messages.
Windows XP Professional
No sounds that I could hear--pretty sure the mute was off, yes I know some sounds override that anyway...
Thanks for the reassurances. He seemed to think that the HD was impossible to get anything off of since it was a laptop.
<Crossing fingers>

[CBGLuthier]

6. No laptop just makes it a little trickier

There are adaptors that can make it plug into a standard IDE cable.

Again, we still don't know what is going on here, is it not booting into Windows? Have you tried safe mode, you get in there by tapping the F8 key right before windows starts loading.

If you can get into safe mode and you just want to recover files then do not follow my advice below.

Just go into safe mode and do a backup by either burning a CD, using a flash drive, putting on a network or whatever method you know how to use best. Fortunately, most of those will still work in XP in safe mode. The older OS's did not work as well in safe mode.

BTW, I keep saying you but I know it is with him. Just makes for easier conversational english.

:-)

[lildreamer316]

7. No problem..

I know what you mean.
He knows how to get the info off (he's done it before when he had a battery problem); and I think he knows how to get it into safe mode. He's actually pretty proficient, but most of his experience is with desktops, so he's scared of messing up the laptop.

All I know is that it was running all night. When we got up this afternoon, I went to open it up to shut it off and pack it so he could leave, and there was the black screen, flashing the error messages. There were 2 of them, short,at the top of the screen,and they both said someting about the ethernet (card or cable). He shut it down and then it wouldn't reboot,but the battery is screwy and the cable gives him problems sometimes (we can't afford a new battery right now). I told him to just let it cool down on the 2 hour drive to work, and then maybe it would be workable.

I'll get back to you as soon as I know what they said...

[flvegan]

2. If recovering the music is the most important aspect

you could probably run it in Safe Mode and pull the files off of it. You could also hook it up to your home system (or another laptop) and pull anything off the hard drive.

I wouldn't think the ethernet card would keep the system from running.

I barely know enough to be dangerous, but that's what I'd do. There are many others around here waaaayyyyy brighter than I am about this.

[CBGLuthier]

3. OK, I reread your message

I can tell you one thing to try but I still would rather know the error mesage fist.

If you have an actual Windows Xp Cd, you can boot from it and attempt a few things.

Note the following carefully, when it boots up one of your options will be to repair XP.

Select that, and then follow the directions until you get to a command prompt, you can try the following command

chkdsk /r

That will run and if your hard drive is goofed up it may be able to fix it and make it bootable.

Failing that you need to try the repair install.

To do that, boot again from CD and select the option to install XP. Assuming your OS is not completely missing it will ask if you want to do a repair install. This is not a pretty rpocess and can mess you up if you have an older CD and have done the service pack updates so proceed with that in mind.

What I mean by that last part is that if your CD is service pack 2, fine no worries, but if it is service pack 1 or even older and you have updated your computer then the repair install can sometimes leave things a bit funky.

Hopefully the chkdsk command will be all you need.

[lildreamer316]

5. THANK you..

As soon as I get on the phone with him we will try it...pretty sure we have the actual cd; not sure if it is svcpk 1 or 2--I think I gave him his cd for his laptop,but mine is a newer HP and I may have the #2. I'll go check that right now.

Thanks again, keep your fingers crossed. I'll update as I go.

[lildreamer316]

8. OK Error message says:

TCI fast ethernet controller version v2.13
media test failure, chack cables
exiting pxrom


when he went into BIOS to change the boot order; he ran a test and it told him : NO IDE Device.

[CBGLuthier]

9. That does not sound good

Have him try booting from the CD and then see if windows finds the hard drive. If not one of two things is happening.

Either the drive has truly failed or there is a motherboard problem and it is not seeing the drive.

Neither is good news.

There is always the slight possibility that the drive has somehow come loose but that is very unlikely. But some designs do have the drive kind of put in from the side and you never know.

If the drive has failed so badly it can not even be seen then your ownly real hope is to try some data recovery specialists and that can be an expensive prospect.

If the drive has failed, then the only bright spot is that laptop hard drives have gotten more affodable. I bought one for a cusotmer last week, 80 GB and it was only $120.00 which is a lot better than they were last week.

Now, looking forward, there are very affordable USB hard drives today for backing up. 80 gb or more for under $100.00.

[lildreamer316]

11. When he tried the suggestion you gave, he got:

"the volume contains one or more unrecoverable problems"

He is going to see if his HD has enough space to install a second OS, so he can try to go through the partition and get to his music.
He hasn't tried your second suggestion yet...waiting on the phone call.

I hope it is not the worst.

I just went through the music files here on the desktop. We are only missing one folder; and I beleive a fellow DJ has a copy. The main problem is that we are B-R-O-K-E and I was never able to find a good insurance for his DJ stuff....we are in trouble when it comes to repair costs. There are a couple of options, but eh.

[lildreamer316]

10. Kick