Computer Fried

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GoldRapt
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by GoldRapt »

I write this from a borrowed laptop.
I have access to it for a fair time each day but as and when the owner wants to use it, I quite rightly hand it over.

Why am I in this postion.
Don't know, turned my main computer on last week to find that my virus software had disappeared, my keyboard and dvds drivers had disappeared and try as much as i did, I couldn't get it to do anything to resolve the issues.
Answer........
Format of hard drive and re install windowes xp pro.
It gets worse, the driver discs that I got with the computer 3 years ago... well I put thwem somewhere safe...so safe, err I cant find them.
So lovely install. No drivers for half the stuff and no internet.
Hmmm....Install belkin wireless N adapter, rig up wireless internet....download and purchase driver robot.......
All drivers downloaded except.......Cant fins the asus motherboard drivers for my chipset and the keyboard is sort of scrambled.
HAve I lost any programs...yes but I had backed them up onto an external drive...........
Jesus, cage fighting that Alex Reid chap would be easier....and quicker.

Moral to the story......god knows, when I find out I'll share :D
regards
Tony
http://www.mildlyinconvenient.co.uk
-launching july/august 2026
bms
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by bms »

At least you had things backed up - all too often these things happen and then we learn the lesson of regularly backing up!

Some pc's have 'hidden' partitions on the hard drive - pressing one of the F keys on startup takes you to the setup screen and then it re-installs the pc back to the original factor settings. Have you tried this?
GoldRapt
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by GoldRapt »

Hi MArtin, Yes and it didnt help me out this time.
The info is good for stickying on the site for the future though.
The main pain is getting all the discs out and re-installing.

Corel X3 is an absolute pain to install, or it was last time i did it .
regards
Tony
http://www.mildlyinconvenient.co.uk
-launching july/august 2026
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Justin
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by Justin »

Having had similar problems in the past I've taken to having a second hard drive with windows and all common programs installed. At least then if something goes belly up I can reboot using that drive and be up and running straight away. I back up to another internal hard drive as well as an external. This didn't stop me losing everything a few years ago though :(
confidential
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by confidential »

Another tip if alse fails, whip the hard drive out and connect it to a usb/hardrive adaptor and plug into a laptop. Run a hard drive recovery program (the sort of thing the old bill use) on the drive and recover the lost data to the laptop, then you can copy it back over to the drive when it's back in the pc with a fresh copy of windows installed.
GoldRapt
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by GoldRapt »

Well, my experience of backing up has been ok but some programmes dont port over very well.
Like R-Wear Studio. backed up but still wont install as it says a file is missing...but doesnt say which one :D

John, whats the name of this back up thing the police use. Maybe I should start preparing for the future....you never know your luck with computers.
regards
Tony
http://www.mildlyinconvenient.co.uk
-launching july/august 2026
confidential
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by confidential »

GoldRapt wrote:John, whats the name of this back up thing the police use. Maybe I should start preparing for the future....you never know your luck with computers.
Just do a search online for hard drive recovery software, I can't remember the one I used last time? but I did find loads of files I deleted by accident - on a formatted hard drive. ;)
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Justin
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by Justin »

I use EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro and I've had some great results with it. Guy at work told me today that his wife has just managed to delete all their holiday photo's off the digital camera so I'm having a go with the SD card tomorrow. Used the software before on flash cards and got 100% of photos back after being formatted so fingers crossed!
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by GoldRapt »

Cheers guys.
I see what happens.
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Tony
http://www.mildlyinconvenient.co.uk
-launching july/august 2026
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JSR
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Re: Computer Fried

Post by JSR »

We all rely on these computers that we sometimes forget how prone they are to problems.

My PC of choice for the last couple of years has been my trusty netbook. So much so that I bought a second one (refurb) a few months back for less than £180.

If my primary netbook has a day off, I won't be having much downtime. Get too much of that when the printers have a day off. ;)

I run most of my apps from portable apps that don't need installing (and also happen to be free) and all files are on external drives and/or an SD card - very little is on the C: drive to minimise recovery time. I transfer the install files for any non-portable apps and drivers across to an external drive so that, if installs are necessary, there's no need to find where I put the CDs. For recovery of lost files, I use the portable version of UndeletePlus (unfortunately it's not free anymore, so I'm not providing a link to it). Not sure if it would recover files from a formatted drive (probably not).

Hope you're back up and running as soon as possible!
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