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womble
Posts: 5702
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From: Living on the edge
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Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/18/2008 5:54:50
Followers of the saga of my dying laptop may remember that for some reason it's been making strange noises for quite a while - the good news is that it's stopped making the horrible noises...the bad news though is that it's just about died on me. 
My problem at the moment is how to rescue the files from it. I use an online backup service, so in theory I should be able to restore the files to my new laptop when it arrives on Thursday, but the rate it'll restore the files at is rather slow, given that I've nearly 30GB of files to restore.
Current symptoms of the dying laptop are that it appears to boot up normally and Windows loads, but then suddenly it just shuts down. I get no error messages, no BSOD - nothing - it just shuts down.
I've had severe problems with it since last week when my broadband connection rate dropped through the floor (but only on that machine - my desktop and Eee laptop are still getting my normal broadband rate). As soon as Windows loads on the laptop the CPU usage has been shooting up to 100% and more or less staying there. Doing anything on it has been taking a hell of a long time. After hours of sitting and staring at the Process Explorer window (I use Process Explorer rather than the Windows task manager, as it gives you more info on exactly what's running) I've still not managed to figure out what's using so much of the CPU though, but anti-virus scans (NOD32) and anti-spyware scans (Spyware Detector) are all coming up clean, and the Kapersky online scanner last week showed no problems either.
On Saturday I decided to run CCleaner on it and removed some what I thought were un-needed entries from the registry, but it's since then the major problems have started, so I'm assuming because of the timing that I've probably seriously b0rked something in the registry, though given that the problems with the broadband speed and CPU usage at 100% started before I ran CCleaner, I guess it could just be coincidence. I did make a backup of the registry before I started playing, but I can't stay in Windows long enough to restore it before the damned thing shuts down.
I've tried booting into the Windows safe mode, but that doesn't seem to work - a list of drivers scrolls by and then it just sits there and doesn't let me do anything else. I've also tried the "last known good" option - that too starts Windows but within a couple of minutes it shuts down (and with the CPU usage at 100% I'm not having time to get to the backup of the registry to restore that).
Other potentially useful background info:
- all my files appear to be there intact on the laptop, at least from the quick look I got at the file structure when it stayed in Windows for slightly longer
- the laptop's networked wirelessly with my desktop and Eee PC (though I've not tried reaching any of the files from the desktop - I can see the laptop on the network on the Eee, but nothing more, as the Eee runs on Linux)
- the OS on the laptop is Win XP Home (it's a Dell Inspiron and it came pre-installed and I don't have an XP CD or anything, though somewhere I have a Dell utility disk, but I'm not sure what's on it or what it does)
- the HDD is just about full. On Friday Windows was saying I'd got around 6% storage space remaining (around 3GB).
- somewhere around here I do have a spare ethernet cable I used to use when I had the laptop set up on a wired network, and I have ordered a data transfer cable which should be arriving on Tuesday (my plan before it decided to shut down on me this morning was to copy across files from the old laptop to the new one with that, but at the moment, given that it'll only stay on for a couple of minutes before shutting down, that plan doesn't look feasible)
Given that my knowledge of hardware stuff isn't great and I intensely dislike having to fiddle with anything where I can break stuff, what are my options for rescuing the files from the laptop? (step-by-step guidance in idiot-proof speak would be helpful please).
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rdouglass
Posts: 9280
From: Biddeford, ME USA
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RE: Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/18/2008 9:20:23
I've used those USB external drive enclosures quite frequently before. If the HD is OK and you can change an HD, you should be able to get the old laptop HD showing as an external on the new laptop. If the HD is OK, you should be able to move those files in minutes. A side benefit is you have a small portable external.
Hope it helps.
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treetopsranch
Posts: 1141
From: Cottage Grove, OR, USA
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RE: Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/18/2008 12:30:29
I agree with rdouglass, I have done that also with good results. You can get those USB drive enclosures at Newegg pretty cheap.
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BobbyDouglas
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RE: Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/18/2008 15:01:09
What's the model of your laptop? Dell Inspiron XXXX ??
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treetopsranch
Posts: 1141
From: Cottage Grove, OR, USA
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RE: Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/18/2008 18:14:54
quote:
is it just a case of sticking the HD in them, plugging them in and away you go?
Yes, just make sure you buy one that works with your size disk drive.
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BobbyDouglas
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From: Arizona
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RE: Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/19/2008 13:54:04
quote:
<edit>I'm struggling to find detailed specs for the Inspiron 1300 HD - would I be right in assuming it'd be 2.5"?)</edit>
- Yes.
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womble
Posts: 5702
Joined: 3/14/2005
From: Living on the edge
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RE: Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/20/2008 22:13:34
Well the good news is that on Tuesday straight from work I went out and bought myself a nice new shiny laptop - the company I'd ordered one from over the weekend stuffed up the order, and with a bank holiday looming next week I could see myself stuck on the Asus Eee until into next week, so I cancelled the order and off I went to my local computer megastore and grilled the sales staff about the pros and cons of the various models on offer there and generally made a nuisance of myself - I was there for two hours and as I was waiting for my lift home afterwards one of the staff who I'd been chatting with gave me a wave on his way out of the car park and another joked that if I turned up next time with a tent and pitched it in the car park they'd make sure I was supplied with regular coffee. 
Anyways, I'm now the proud new owner of a Toshiba Equium A300D which I'm very impressed with so far. The screen's a huge improvement on my old Dell, and so much sharper! It's lovely and shiny and looks pretty good, and from a technical point of view it's pretty zippy. It hasn't got quite as much RAM as I'd have liked (currently 3GB), but I can always upgrade that later. I've been trying the speakers out tonight as well, and the sound's pretty damned impressive! I decided in the end to take the plunge and go for Vista (Home Premium) - I was really only hanging on to XP because of PSP8, but after I discovered Photoshop Elements, I've been using PSP less and less. The only other thing I'll miss is my smiley-making software, but as I don't really have that much time for smiley making these days, I guess I can live without that too. As for Vista, though I'm still not entirely sure about wasting system resources on things that look pretty but don't really add anything with all the Mac-esque graphics and effects (though I've not really explored Vista too much so far) I have to say so far overall I'm pretty impressed with it, and though it's obviously a bit different from XP, it seems pretty nice, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I do like my super-zippy booting up Linux Eee though and over the weekend I was playing around with the advanced mode and installing stuff and customising it a bit more, i.e. not just using the "easy mode" and actually using the Linux Xandros desktop.
As for the Dell, it turns out the horrid screechy/whirring noise first reported a couple of months ago was indeed a dying hard drive and not something loose on the fan as I'd suspected at the time. Mr Jaybee (ex-Dell) has been most helpful in questions regarding the HD advising me how to check out the hard drive with the diagnostics thingy, and the moment "Error code: 1000-0146 Msg: Unit 0: IDE status failed....no drive detected" popped up on the screen I figured the only use I was going to get out of the hard drive was as a coaster. After a bit of a panic this afternoon though when I thought I'd pressed the wrong option and wiped my online backup, and a hasty livechat with tech support, my Carbonite online backup's now restoring onto the new laptop and just over 900 files have been restored so far (hence I was trying out the speakers with some of the music that's been recovered) - as predicted it's going to take a fair while, but everything important should come back.
I've learnt two very important lessons though....don't ignore horrible noises from computers and hope they're not important, and that it really is a good idea to have a local backup as well for getting up and running again asap.
As the Dell's currently a rather large but inoperative paperweight, but my dad's decided he and my mum could use it if it were fixed, I've decided to view it as a learning opportunity and have a go at sticking a new HD in it and re-installing Windows, so expect lots of silly questions coming up about such matters. Apart from the two above lessons this whole thing has shown I really did ought to learn more about the insides of these things, so as the Dell's currently not much use for anything else, I'll use it to learn on.
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womble
Posts: 5702
Joined: 3/14/2005
From: Living on the edge
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RE: Rescuing files from a dying laptop - 8/24/2008 5:40:07
Hmmmm...well Vista does seem very nice so far, apart from one rather big issue which is that it seems to have issues with my internet connection (while neither Diva (yes, she is still around but is a very old lady now), or the Eee have a problem with it, and according to my router's configuration page it's been up now for days without a reboot or throwing a wobbly.
At first I thought it was a Firefox problem and started ranting on the Firefox forums (like you do ), and while Firefox 3.0.1 does seem to have some big issues (I've now downgraded back to 2.0.0.16) Opera and IE are having the same problem with my internet connection. All's well for a while and then pages won't load and if I try and reload the browser crashes (all of them do the same), the Google desktop sidebar loses it's connection so I've no idea what the weather's doing outside (though I guess I could always do what a geeky ex-colleague of mine did and set up a webcam on the window-sill so he didn't have to turn round and look out of the window ), and basically anything that needs an internet connection loses it. Vista's connection diagnostic thingy meanwhile reports there isn't a problem with my connection, but the only way to get it back's to restart the damned thing! 
A bit of googling discovered a few people seem to be having issues with Vista getting confused about whether there's an internet connection or not, and it seems to be a SP1 issue. There are some reports that if you check out the connection details it's to do with TCP/IPv6, and when I checked out my settings it was showing "limited" for TCP/IPv6. Disabling TCP/IPv6 is supposed to clear the problem, but though it does seem to have improved it, I was still having problems with it yesterday after disabling it. Fingers crossed though, today it's been behaving so far, so I'll see how it gets on today.
On the positive side, my files are 52% restored now - it'll probably be another couple of days before the restoration's complete, and yesterday I bought me an external hard drive and Acronis. Software wise mostly on the laptop I was using open-source stuff, and the few apps I'd got that were licensed stuff I've been able to transfer the licenses over to the new laptop.
As for the original problem on the old laptop, I'm still not sure that the problem wasn't originally the fans with the horrible noise - the noises it was making didn't sound like hard drive noises, and the other thing I'd forgotten until last night was that a couple of days before the HD died, the poor thing got dropped (well, fell off the sofa after my foot became tangled in the power cable and laptop and I ended up on the floor), so maybe it was the drop that did the HD, and the original problem was the fan after all? (could also account for my brain problems recently as well )
Ah well, like they say, it's history now. Now if I can just get Vista to play nice with my internet connection I'll be a happy bunny.
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~~ "A cruel god ain't no god at all" ~~
~~ Erase hate. Practice love. ~~
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Printable Version 
(he used to work for Dell)) 
Sounds a nice piece of kit even though it is Vista'd, but there is a downgrade option back to XP I hope? Now for the future get yourself Acronis and an external HDD for local back ups. Both have been a godsend to me in the past.
