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My Laptop died with all my notes.
Bulbasaur
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, I know, I've learned a valuable lesson regarding the importance of backing things up and I'm a damned fool for not doing it but uh, let's try to not focus on that little detail because right now I've got bigger fish to fry.
See, my Dell laptop just died. Basically, I was just browsing the forums and well my screen went black for a moment and then the image returned and a pop up bubble said "You're display driver just recovered from a critical error" and then it happened again. Then there was a BSoD and then when it restarted the only thing displaying on my screen are a bunch of randomly colored vertical lines. A few restarts later and a two day cool down period didn't fix the problem.
Fortunately, I had the extended warranty and upon talking to a Dell representive they said they would fix it all I need to do is send it in. Great. Only, not so great, because they won't have it back for at least 2 weeks, and I'm in the middle of my finals with all my class notes stored on the hard drive. Talking to the customer service agent they said there was no way for me to access the data without sending the laptop into dell.
However, I'm thinking their probably only saying that because they don't want the average dell customer screwing with any of the hardware. So, I guess I want to know what all my options are for getting my notes off that hard drive ASAP. I guess I'd be willing to void the warranty since the thing is pretty old and the cost of not being able to study for my exams is pretty bloody high. Ideally though I'd like to maintain the warranty.
See, my Dell laptop just died. Basically, I was just browsing the forums and well my screen went black for a moment and then the image returned and a pop up bubble said "You're display driver just recovered from a critical error" and then it happened again. Then there was a BSoD and then when it restarted the only thing displaying on my screen are a bunch of randomly colored vertical lines. A few restarts later and a two day cool down period didn't fix the problem.
Fortunately, I had the extended warranty and upon talking to a Dell representive they said they would fix it all I need to do is send it in. Great. Only, not so great, because they won't have it back for at least 2 weeks, and I'm in the middle of my finals with all my class notes stored on the hard drive. Talking to the customer service agent they said there was no way for me to access the data without sending the laptop into dell.
However, I'm thinking their probably only saying that because they don't want the average dell customer screwing with any of the hardware. So, I guess I want to know what all my options are for getting my notes off that hard drive ASAP. I guess I'd be willing to void the warranty since the thing is pretty old and the cost of not being able to study for my exams is pretty bloody high. Ideally though I'd like to maintain the warranty.
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Getting the notes straight up from a friend is really a sub optimum alternative.
If you can access your files then try to e-mail them to yourself or burn them onto a disc.
Ryan M Long Photography
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On the other hand, the harddrive might be fried. But you'd probably notice if it started to die. Any high-pitched whines or grinding sounds? Lacking those, you're probably in the clear.
Another thing you could try is getting yourself a Linux LiveCD, such as the ones available from Ubuntu. If the issue isn't completely harddrive dependent, then you'd be able to boot into your laptop (if it powers up, that is), and read all of your notes and files and things on your harddrive. You wouldn't be able to save anything or write in anyway to the harddrive, but you would at least be able to access the files. That's something you try without having to crack open your case.
Edit: Thing with my laptop is right now when I boot it up I don't even see the POST stuff or get to the BIOS to change the boot order it's just those damned vertical lines.
Provided it can read the filesystem type and the drive isn't damaged, yes. I.E. Windows will be able to read another Windows drive.
Whatever the hell you do, DO NOT plug it in to another machine and format it. You'll lose everything
Ryan M Long Photography
Buy my Prints!
Thanks for the help guys.
Ryan M Long Photography
Buy my Prints!
Some reassurance: This sounds very much like a graphics-card-originated issue, what with the initial failure speaking of graphics drivers and then the screen displaying only graphical artifacting before dying. The chances of the hard drive being untouched or at least readable are high.
A suggestion on backup: I have a USB key that I use as a keychain that I back up all my notes on every time I update the notes. It's a very simple thing to pull the key out of my pocket at the end of every lecture and quickly update any edited files. To be super secure, you can then back this up to your other PC once you get home every day. You might want to try something similar to this setup in the future to prevent future panicking.
To add to this: you can also get a hard-drive enclosure, but those are much more expensive. It's basically an IDE -> USB converter.
Plug the hard drive as a slave and access it by using your existing Windows.
I'm pretty sure that's what people have been suggesting.