Is it Dead?

[LateNights]

Hello to all and thank you in advance for any and all help.

Here's my story and problem.

I have an HP laptop (model ze5749) that was purchased about 1.5 years ago. Obviously out of warranty. My wife was doing normal basic things on it one day and then it shut down and retarted (out of no where). Ever since then, the computer won't boot. It tries to start, I get the HP screen that has option to Esc boot and then I get a DOS-looking screen with 5 different booting options. I have tried all 5 and each yields the same, it shows the Windows loading page and just before it should go to the desktop, there is a very brief flash with a blue screen with text (too fast, can't read it) and then the computer shuts down and restarts the whole thing all over again. If I hit F8 on the first screen I get more options, but nothing seems to work.

We believe that it might have something to do with a Windows update (we had it on automatic updates).

So I call Microsoft and spend several hours on the phone with several different people and we come to the conclusion that they need me to use the restore disk (they were actually helpful). So I look into it and realize that it never came with the computer. So we conference call HP, who is responsible for packaging the disks in with their product. They admit that it is not included and insist that I need to spend about $50 to buy it. They say that it is due to the various preloaded programs (not that I didn't already have these anyways; and besides unless you pay extra, the software that comes preloaded isn't exactly the fanciest).

I went out and got a case for the hard drive to try to access the files and save them, then I was going to do whatever to try to get the computer funtional again. I took out the HD and tried to access it from 2 different computers, but had no results. Whichever computer got hooked up, bogged down very badly. I tried to see if the computer "saw" the drive (My Computer) and every time it froze up (Not Responding).

I am stuck. I want to retrieve the files on the HD as it contains a lot of graphics that my wife made (many, many hours of work). Secondly, the computer should last a few more years, so I would like to get it running again if possible.

So here's the questions:
WILL "RECOVER MY FILES" BE ABLE TO SAVE THE FILES I HAVE?

HOW DO I UTILIZE THE SOFTWARE ON A COMPUTER THAT WON'T BOOT?

SYSTEM INFORMATION:
OS-Windows XP Home
computer-HP Pavilion ze5749
RAM-512 MB
HD-Seagate 40GB AT drive
CPU-don't remember, either AMD Athlon or Pentium 4

Please, please let me know what can be done.

Late Nights

[GDH]

You did the right thing by removing the drive and trying to connect it to another computer as a secondary drive.

When you did this, were you able to hear the drive 'spin up' (ie. the noise it makes when the platters inside the drive are spinning). Were there any other stange noises being made by the drive?

Recover My Files needs Windows to run, so if you can't get the drive connected to a Windows computer then you will not be able to use the software options. It is possible that your drive has mechanical problems, in which case the only solution is to send it to a hardware data recovery company, which can be expensive.

If you have a USB drive enclosure you may like to try connecting the drive when Windows is already running to see what happens. You do not have to see the drive letter, just be able to view the "physical drive" in the recover my files drive selection screen.

If you keep trying these things, I suggest you also make a backup of any important material that it on the other computer.

[LateNights]

Thanks for the reply GDH.

When I connect it, it begins spinning with no grinding noises. The drive seems to stay busy for quite awhile. When I go to "My Computer", after a while I can see the drive ( E: ), but every time I try to access it, "My Computer" immediately says "(Not Responding)". I like to think that I am patient and gave the computer enough time to do whatever.

I also noticed that a lot of the functions of the good computer are halted when I ahave the bad one connected. I have tried to access the internet and other programs and got no where. As soon as I disconnect the drive, all the programs pop open very quickly.

I tried connecting the enclosure to 2 different computers and had the same results as stated above. I can eventually see the drive, but can never seem to access it. I run Windows XP on both the good computers.

So,....would the software help? What is the cost? How do I set everything up (what connected to what, download process, etc.)? Is there a way to use the software to view what I can save, if anything before I purchase it?

Thanks again for the help.

LN

[GDH]

Download Recover My Files from www.recovermyfiles.com. Install it on your C: drive.

Run the program and select "Complete File Search". In the drive selection window, do you see a "physical drive". Physical drive 0 is your C: drive, so your problem drive should be physical drive 1.

If you can see the drive you will be able to search it for specific file types. During the search, or at the end of the search, you can click on the files displayed in the results screen to preview their content.

If you can see the pictures, documents etc, then you know the program has worked and found your data.

Then you can purchase a product activation key from www.recovermyfiles.com for $69.95 and save your files.

[LateNights]

Thanks again GDH,

I will give it a try in a day or two. The family is super busy today and tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

LN

[LateNights]

Ok, so I tried it out.

I hooked up the bad drive as an external hard drive connected to one of the good computers. I downloaded the software onto the good computer. I ran the software program and picked it to search drive 1, which seemed to be the external drive. I chose to do the complete search rather than the quick search. I tried to cover all the different file types that might be on the hard drive, without choosing a bunch of unnecessary ones. Within 5 to 10 minutes, a bunch of files were found. I let it continue to run. It came up with about 171 files and they were a mixture of file types. It kept running. I let it keep running for about 2 hours and it was not finding any more, b ut it kept searching. It said that it was on something like 19488 out of 17988693, or something like that. It seemed that it had a long way to go. I stopped the search to see if I could preview any of the files-nothing. I am not sure I was looking in the right spot to try to find where to preview the files.

I would like to know how long it should take to search for the files. I would also like to know what I need to do to actually preview the files, either after the search is completed or after I stop the search.

I was very encouraged to see the number of files found, it will be better when I can preview them.

Thanks for all the help.


PS. A work colleague tried to simply connect the external hard drive and it totally bogged his PC down, too.

[GDH]

Have a look at the screen shots here: http://www.recovermyfiles.com/recove...nshot-main.php, particularly step 4 which shows the preview.

If you stop the search early, you may have to click on the file type underneath "File View", which should display the list of files on the right hand side. Click on the file on the right hand side to display the content in the window below.

[LateNights]

Ok. I took a look at the screen shots and I see what you are talking about. I don't remember exactly what was the last thing that I saw, so I will have to run it again.
A colleague had a software program that was also supposed to be able to take a look at what is on the hard drive. It is from Linux and it is called Knoppix. I guess it simply runs off the RAM memory and the computer actually did boot up with it. We searched for .jpg files and it turned up over 13,000 before the RAM over loaded So I guess I am a little confused why Recover My Files only turned up less then 200 files. Any thoughts?

I will run Recover My Files again tomorrow night and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the help.

[GDH]

You need to let a Complete Format Recovery run to the very end. This is when it rebuilds the old file structure and it will tell you exactly how many files can be recovered.