Dell/Tesco PC & new hard drive

posted_2

The guided install will probably be plug it in, and reinstall Vista from DVD, nothing particularly technical.

You can swap them at your leisure, but presumably they will want the old drive back at some point.

Do you have some blank DVD's or CD's available?

generaloneill

download bootable linux to access the root files on your hard drive.

I can provide the link (you just burn it to a dvd)

You then use the Disc to boot up the linux OS, and from there should have access to the Hard drive

posted_2

Did they ask you to do a reinstall to factory settings (something to be avoided)?

[Deleted User]

If it was making any unusual noises and it's become unresponsive then it's usually indicative of a head crash, which is the worst thing for the integrity of the data held on the drive.

If the data on the drive is very important to you, I'd take it out and do nothing with it until you have spoken to a company that specialises in recovery. Trying to do anything to it is going to reduce the chance of recovery. Bear in mind recovery can easily escalate to over £500.

generaloneill

Id be happy to recover the data for nothing as long as you provided a blank dvdr and paid postage both ways. Its very unlikely the drive is dead. Probably just corrupt.

gjchester

generaloneill wrote: »

Id be happy to recover the data for nothing as long as you provided a blank dvdr and paid postage both ways. Its very unlikely the drive is dead. Probably just corrupt.

Chances are Windows is corrupt, and a Linux disk may help, but anything more and any attempt to use it will make it harder to restore any data.

I'd be vary wary of anyone who thinks this is as simple as plugging it into a PC, it may be just a stuffed windows install but if it's not then trusting that drive into the tender mercy of the Royal Mail's care twice will probably make it unrecoverable.

hogshead

I am HAPPY to report that we followed advice on here & popped it back it.
Prompt was to run a system restore which seems quite simple & was not suggested on the help line.
It offered several prompts along the way & that it may resart throughout the operation but everything now appears to be fine.

All data, photos etc are present so I shall await their call & return the new driver they sent out.

I am so thankful for all the replies & offers of help. I am grateful that you took the time to offer any solution at all as some of the posts do often get answered elsewhere ( I searched but was desperate also )

I know it was also suggested to do nothing so it was a hard call which for us paid off.

Tomorrow I shall be buying an external hard drive & a million CD's & saving in multiples. Off to search for a good deal on the Ext HD...any suggestions.

Thanks again to you all, really without being mushy I am most grateful.

macman

Glad it appears to be fixed but it may still be that your hard drive is faulty and may yet fail at any time, get your backup sorted and then accept their offer of a new hard drive and replace it. You may be less lucky next time.

posted_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1547783

Probably more storage than you need, but a good price/GB. DVD's are better value than CD's, and cheaper if you buy them uncased/in bulk from a cheap supplier.

will-he-payitoff

Try this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139232