Computer go BOOM!

[Hermit]

If the laptop can't ever be started at all, take the hard drive out of it and insert it in a hard drive enclosure. They are cheap. Make sure that the enclosure you get supports 2.5" drives and the connectors on your particular one. Plug the device into a USB socket of another computer and copy whatever files you want to keep.

[Bella Fortuna]

It's not dead as in no response at all - it won't get past the initial starting up stuff. Ah well - to the shop it goes. No way I'm attempting anything else myself.

[klr]

It's at times like this I'm glad I have a skills set that allow me to solve almost any such problem myself, even at the cost of being constantly tapped for free family tech. support.

It helps save some money at any rate, which might go some way to off-setting my eye care costs.

[Bella Fortuna]

Indeed - I wish I knew someone here who could do such things, because to be honest all I want to do is get stuff off of it - if it's dead and needs to be pitched, fine. But it's irritating that I'll probably have to pay an obnoxious amount just to get the files from it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Indeed - I wish I knew someone here who could do such things, because to be honest all I want to do is get stuff off of it - if it's dead and needs to be pitched, fine. But it's irritating that I'll probably have to pay an obnoxious amount just to get the files from it.

If you buy the external yourself you'll save money. Then just ask them to transfer the data off the old drive to the new one.

[Hermit]

No way I'm attempting anything else myself.

it's irritating that I'll probably have to pay an obnoxious amount just to get the files from it.

If you do as I suggested, all you'll need is about 30 dollars, a small phillips head screwdriver and time. Take the hard drive out of the laptop, go to a computer shop with it and tell the sales person you want an adaptor to fit it in. Take the device home, plug the hard drive into it, connect it to a USB socket, open the control panel or whatever it's called on your operating system and copy whatever files you want to keep to whatever folder(s) you want them to be on on your working computer. Go on. Be adventurous.

You might also want to invest in an external backup drive. The two terabyte Western Digital offering costs about 150 dollars in Australia. Other brands have similar products, but I stick with this one because it's the only one whose hard disks have never failed me (yet).

[Bella Fortuna]

I have a couple of external drives, fortunately.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You might also want to invest in an external backup drive. The two terabyte Western Digital offering costs about 150 dollars in Australia. Other brands have similar products, but I stick with this one because it's the only one whose hard disks have never failed me (yet).

I just bought a 3T naked from Amazon for $139USD.

[Tyrannical]

You might also want to invest in an external backup drive. The two terabyte Western Digital offering costs about 150 dollars in Australia. Other brands have similar products, but I stick with this one because it's the only one whose hard disks have never failed me (yet).

I just bought a 3T naked from Amazon for $139USD.

Wow,is 3TB that cheap now in a single drive? That's 750 DVD-Rs, or half as many DVD movies. Just transferring stuff over would be quite a project.

[klr]

You might also want to invest in an external backup drive. The two terabyte Western Digital offering costs about 150 dollars in Australia. Other brands have similar products, but I stick with this one because it's the only one whose hard disks have never failed me (yet).

I just bought a 3T naked from Amazon for $139USD.

Wow,is 3TB that cheap now in a single drive? That's 750 DVD-Rs, or half as many DVD movies. Just transferring stuff over would be quite a project.

I've done it on a smaller scale, ripping and re-coding all my DVDs down to about 320 GB of space. There's also over 200 GB of music in FLAC (lossless) format.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You know how much space Hyperwar needs, not counting the 50+ gig pending upload.

[klr]

You know how much space Hyperwar needs, not counting the 50+ gig pending upload.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You know how much space Hyperwar needs, not counting the 50+ gig pending upload.

75+

Sorry.

[klr]

You know how much space Hyperwar needs, not counting the 50+ gig pending upload.

75+

Sorry.

Just as well I bought some more hard drives a couple of days ago.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

80+