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need computer help

mikedean441

mikedean441

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Typing from phone so hopefully it comes out ok.

Basically we found out today that the hard drive is not working in our laptop, acording to the guy, it wasn't even spinning.

My wife is freaking out cause the pics of our kids for the past 5 years are on there.

Guy at best buy said they can send it out to have the info extracted, the way he. Explained it they would have to take it apart, etc.

So he says its 250 to send it out, then proceeds to tell me if its not a quick simple fix, they will call and ask for approval to proceed for an additional cost. So there is not set amount it could cost, he said the most he's seen spent was 2k from a lawyer that needed the files.

My question is are there other options available to me? Can these companies be contacted directly and cut out the middleman? He said if I didn't like the estimate they would call with, then I can get 100 back. Seems like a sucker bet to me, what are the odds it would be a quick fix and id only be out the 250?

Any help is appreciated
 
Thats rough man, but with no backup files and a non-spinning drive, it sounds like your only option. Cutting out the middle man may be possible, but not easy. good luck dude.
 
If your drive was spinning, this would be a whole different story. But since it's not, you don't really have another choice. If you know someone who's good with computers, ask him to remove the hard drive and extract the files. Or, ask around. Some people can actually get the hard drive re-spinning, saving you a ton.

My friend, who's had the same problem, sent gave to a computer tech he knew, and the guy just swapped out the hard drives, and did a file transfer. Not sure how (the guy's a genius), but you might want to ask about it
 
Well some good news, my brother still had my data on his external drive from when we transferred some stuff over, I think its through summer of 2010, so I guess its not as bad as it could be
 
mikedean441 said:
Well some good news, my brother still had my data on his external drive from when we transferred some stuff over, I think its through summer of 2010, so I guess its not as bad as it could be
Click to expand...

That's good. Lucky for you he still had it :)
 
fishymehta said:
That's good. Lucky for you he still had it :)
Click to expand...

Yeah no doubt, it had dawned on me that we had done that recently.

And he's actually got the data through mid jan of 2011.

So not near as urgent to get everything from the old one, but will have to down the road
 
I know you can sometimes save your data if you put your hard drive in the freezer, but I don't know about if it has gotten to the no spin stage if that will work.
 
I would think about looking other places. I have had a few people I know take computers to best buy and none of them had a good thing to say about it. Just a thought and might be cheaper.


---
- Tapatalk... Loved by me hated by the wife.
 
Repeat after me: Back up. Back up. Back up.

I learned my lesson over ten years ago. I back up at least weekly ever since.
 
If the missing documents, pictures, ect. aren't needed now, I would put back that computer, and upgrade! You would almost put half, if not more money into getting the docs versus a new laptop. That is my opinion, and if the docs aren't of importance.
 
Smallville said:
I know you can sometimes save your data if you put your hard drive in the freezer, but I don't know about if it has gotten to the no spin stage if that will work.
Click to expand...

+1 The first thing came to my mind when I read your post, sometimes that can but a few minutes or so to remove data.
 
Smallville said:
Repeat after me: Back up. Back up. Back up.

I learned my lesson over ten years ago. I back up at least weekly ever since.
Click to expand...


^^^ what he said great, but often unheeded advice. I would add though, have more than one copy, test the copies to make sure they are actually good, and any sort of mechanical hard drive is not a good backup source (external, etc), neither are USB sticks.
 
Hey mike, I have some software to pull files off of disks, I can throw your hard drive on my machine as a slave and y to extract as much as possible. Can u bring it over 9/11 before we head out?

Are you completely sure it isn't spinning up?

I've pulled info off deleted hard disks, and dead hard drives before, the question is just how dead is it.

We
 
cg13 said:
Hey mike, I have some software to pull files off of disks, I can throw your hard drive on my machine as a slave and y to extract as much as possible. Can u bring it over 9/11 before we head out?

Are you completely sure it isn't spinning up?

I've pulled info off deleted hard disks, and dead hard drives before, the question is just how dead is it.

We
Click to expand...

If it's similar software to what I use then the drive needs to be spinning. Putting a drive that is not spinning as a slave won't do anything as the PC won't recognise it anyway
 
Smallville said:
Repeat after me: Back up. Back up. Back up.

I learned my lesson over ten years ago. I back up at least weekly ever since.
Click to expand...

+2. Thumb drives are pretty cheap and hold a lot of data.
 
That sucks Mike I know how you feel. A few years ago I bought a new pc and transferred all my data to my new pc and a month after we bought it the hard drive crashed and we lost all the data. Luckily we still had our old pc and didn't loose the data all together.
 
cg13 said:
Hey mike, I have some software to pull files off of disks, I can throw your hard drive on my machine as a slave and y to extract as much as possible. Can u bring it over 9/11 before we head out?

Are you completely sure it isn't spinning up?

I've pulled info off deleted hard disks, and dead hard drives before, the question is just how dead is it.

We
Click to expand...

based on what the guy told me, yeah it isnt spinning, nor did it sound like it when even I tried to turn it on

and yes, I know now more than ever I need to backup, etc

I'll bring it up next weekend and see what we can figure out

in the mean time, bringing my old laptop out of retirement, my wife dropped it a few years ago and busted the screen
 
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