Help - laptop dead :(

cardiff_gareth

cardiff_gareth

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Gareth
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My laptop this morning said it had 15 important windows updates to install so I let it. When it went to restart it hung on the shutting down screen and wouldn't budge so I had to force shut it down. When you try and start it you get the start screens and log in screen and then it'll hang on a black screen with a mouse pointer. If you press f8 on the start up screen and try to enter safe mode then it'll again hang on a black screen. When pressing f8 and entering repair mode instead then the first command to try and repair the disk for start up fails and all I get is an option to send MS a error log. The 2nd option to restore to a previous date will work to allow me to the desktop but I can't shut down, restart etc as again it'll hang and crash. From searching online I see it's a dell laptop problem that will no doubt effect all at some point. I have a photoshoot tomorrow and I need to use my editing software so what can I do? I have the Dell OS disk but all I have is an option to clean install not repair the disk but I don't want to lose my software, images etc. Do I have any options as right now I'm thinking I'm looking at a clean install, maybe even a new hard drive ? Am I right in thinking that a clean install is not the same as a format so all software etc will remain intact ?
 
That's a b****r!!

Been there and want to throw the computer out the window :-)

If you go ahead with the fresh install you are given plenty of notice about what the effect is.

What is the OS?

Last time something similar happened to me I did a fresh install but all files were put in a folder I think called 'Old Windows', so they were there but needed to be copied over and programs re-installed.

Always hard to find advice on these things without getting confused by geeky websites where posters are IT pros.

Good luck.
 
For the speed:

Go out, buy a new hard drive and buy a HDD caddy from PC world.

Install the new hard drive into your laptop and reinstall your OS,

Put your old hard drive in the USB caddy which you bought, so you can plug it into your laptop once its reinstalled and drag and drop and files across what you need.

You will need to reinstall your software again though.

Caddy will work just like a USB drive after that unless the drive is caput and corrupt at which point data recovery will be required
 
Carbonangel said:
For the speed:

Go out, buy a new hard drive and buy a HDD caddy from PC world.

Install the new hard drive into your laptop and reinstall your OS,

Put your old hard drive in the USB caddy which you bought, so you can plug it into your laptop once its reinstalled and drag and drop and files across what you need.

You will need to reinstall your software again though.

Caddy will work just like a USB drive after that unless the drive is caput and corrupt at which point data recovery will be required
Click to expand...

Thanks, will do

I see PC World Caddy's are £15 and eBay they are like £4 upwards. Is there a lot in a Caddy to warrant their price? I want it all fixed today so I'll probably have to get the PC World one

Will the data on the existing bust hard drive be accessible and recoverable ?
 
Data probably won't be lost its the os that's probably the issue, if you use the old hd in a caddy as suggested you will probably be able to see and load all pics from it but you will need to reinstall the original software onto the new hard drive.
It's now that you wish you had invested in a good imaging programme so that you could reinstall the last good image of your hd!
 
Thanks Gramps, sounds good, I suppose when all the data I want is moved across I can format the old hard drive and use that as an external hard drive :)

gramps said:
It's now that you wish you had invested in a good imaging programme so that you could reinstall the last good image of your hd!
Click to expand...

Eh ?!!
 
Well I managed to recover some of the image / files and also deactivate the softwares I wanted to do so new hard drive in and updating. Took ages yesterday as Vista wanted to do a 111 install update and today it's doing a 78 install updates. Going fairly smooth but not counting my chickens until it's all done!
 
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