pc wont start is it poss to recover music?

lesley2004

Hi

My dell pc has finally decided to die it is 3 years old. It has had problems on and off over past year and now when switched on a solid orange light appears and no other activity. I have all my photos backed up but my kids have not saved all their music. Is there a way to recover this??

I a not keen to spend much money on the pc as I am going to buy a new one anyways

Any advice out there

deadduck_145

Since it will (should be!) be saved on your hard drive and providing that hasnt packed in then yes it is possible.
You need to remove the hard drive from your pc, and put it into a hard drive caddy which will then let you get your stuff from it.

It wont let me post a link for you 'cos im a 'new user'. But google hard drive caddy and you can pick one up for about £20. If you need help on how to set it up then again google is your friend or even youtube. If you have any problems drop me a message and ill try to help.

Hope this helps

phxweb

Where your personal data and data you cant afford to lose is concerned I cant stress enough how important it is to seek professional help.[FONT=&quot]

[/FONT] You can google / you tube information, but the experience of a professional is better than screwing up your drive so that nothing can be recoverable if you trash it yourself.

Your data should be recoverable from what you describe for about £30-£50 by an IT Company (the price of a caddy anyway)

If you try yourself and trash the data you could increase your recovery bill to £200 - £400 minimum.

People will advice you to do it yourself, before you try ask yourself if your Data is important and whether you can afford to have it recovered at £200 -£400 if you screw it up.

darich

phxweb wrote: »

Where your personal data and data you cant afford to lose is concerned I cant stress enough how important it is to seek professional help.[FONT=&quot]

[/FONT] You can google / you tube information, but the experience of a professional is better than screwing up your drive so that nothing can be recoverable if you trash it yourself.

Your data should be recoverable from what you describe for about £30-£50 by an IT Company (the price of a caddy anyway)

If you try yourself and trash the data you could increase your recovery bill to £200 - £400 minimum.

People will advice you to do it yourself, before you try ask yourself if your Data is important and whether you can afford to have it recovered at £200 -£400 if you screw it up.

everything you say is true....but only if the hard drive has failed.

If it's another component within the computer and the hard drive is fine, then it will only cost a few pounds for either a caddy...or it will cost nothing if there is another machine the op can use to connect the drive to. that would then be a slave drive in the new machine. all files can then be copied to a usb stick/cd/dvd without any professionals being involved.

none of the above is particularly difficult with google and you tube (and here) have plenty of knowledgeable people and articles.

lesley2004

ta for information. i might try the caddy because it wont be the end of the world if i lose the music as that is all of any importance on the pc

lesley2004

darich does that mean if the heard drive has not died i could connect it to my laptop?? how is this done??

darich

just re-read your opening post.
don't buy a caddy. the old hard drive should be able to simply plug into the new machine you're planning on buying.
a couple of adjustments and it will just slot in if it's the same type as the new drive.

phxweb

darich wrote: »

just re-read your opening post.
don't buy a caddy. the old hard drive should be able to simply plug into the new machine you're planning on buying.
a couple of adjustments and it will just slot in if it's the same type as the new drive.

This assumes the new computer has an ide connector which the old hard drive will probably have if its 3 years old.

Even if the hard drive is not damaged there are so many possibilities for losing data even when 'just plugging it in' another machine.

Good luck and hope you dont have any important data you wish to save.

closed

have you tried powering it off at the wall, which light?

Mattjimf

phxweb wrote: »

This assumes the new computer has an ide connector which the old hard drive will probably have if its 3 years old.

Even if the hard drive is not damaged there are so many possibilities for losing data even when 'just plugging it in' another machine.

Good luck and hope you dont have any important data you wish to save.

The OP has already said it's just to try and get music off, and that it's not a huge problem if the hard drive is bust.

Lesley, if you want to connect your hard drive to your laptop, best thing would be to get a HDD caddy like this one - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1897881755.1261845515@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfjadejehjelfmcflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=005087&category_oid=

prowla

I would go for the hard drive caddy option, as if the drive is still alright then you'll be able to continue using it as an add-on store even after you've recovered the data off it.
Of course, if it is the hard drive that has failed (it might be making clunk or graunchy type noises if they're an adequate description!), then it's probably lost & gone forever.

As an alternative to buying a caddy, you may find that you can simply plug your old drive into the new computer temporarily (the CD/DVD-ROM drive of the new machine may have a suitable IDE connector even if the rest of the machine is SATA) and copy the files off it.

It's up to you whether you want to pay someone to do it for you.