• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Dell something something doesn't work. How can I get my data back?

nickelbabe

nickelbabe

nickelbabe

Associate
Joined
16 Jan 2013
Posts
9
Not sure of the model, but it's a dell.
Running vista sp2 (no internet)
It won't turn on - I get fan, orange power light and nothing else.
I tried changing the button cell battery and reset cmos with info from youtube.
Then I wondered whether the power supply was kaput so I replaced that. It was not the power supply.
I don't know what else to try.
My question is therefore 2-fold.
1: is there anything I can do to save it?
Or
2: which bit are my data stored on and how can I make it so I can use them on my new computer? I know I have 2 harddrives - the C drive with the OS and the F drive mainly used for storage.

Thank you
a8b7c65a7f3f2949fe3c898aa0b7e7913e65ed5b.jpg
f1aa238730358a947d3eec9f135fbe17794cb2a9.jpg
 
It could be memory but easiest option is as above, sata cradle to usb and you put the 2 drives in the bottom left into the cradle and plug it into another machine.
 
Does it beep when you turn it on? That generation of Dell used too and sometimes you'd have numbers from 1 to 4 that tied into the error stopping it booting
 
brendy said:
1. that pc is ancient, time for something newer.
2. You seem to have two hard drives bottom left of that pic with the coloured power leads going onto them. They can most likely be removed and read either via a USB to SATA type powered convertor or in another pc.
Click to expand...
I know it's ancient - I've had a new computer for 2 years, but haven't been able to get this one to work to get the data.

i was mainly checking to see if it's safe to remove and how to connect, so thank you for that
 
nickelbabe said:
I have no idea!
How would I find that out?
Click to expand...
I think it's extremely unlikely that it's in RAID0.
you said you have a new PC - If it's a desktop and has spare SATA ports and power, you could connect the drives (even just sat on your desk) and recover the data.
If you don't have ports then a USB dock or enclosure would work...

I'm not able to link to sites other than overclockers due to forum rules, but something like this
www.overclockers.co.uk

IcyBox Docking Station for 1x HDD/SSD with USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Connector

Order IcyBox Docking Station for 1x HDD/SSD with USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Connector now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

Similar things are available elsewhere.

Once connected, if you can't see it as a separate drive, you may need to open disk management and assign it a drive letter - go to the start menu and type diskmgmt.msc, open that and you will see the drives. If one doesn't have a letter assigned (X:) then right click on it and 'change drive letter'

...All of this is assuming that the drives themselves haven't failed!
 
From that photo your power button is on orange. Is it solid orange or flashing a code i.e. 2 orange flashes then 4 then repeat. If it is flashing a code then count the number of flashes. There will be a short pause between the first set and second then a long pause before the pattern repeats. Also does the machine not have a service tag or express service code on a sticker on the outside?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom