NFR - Laptop help

[Admin]

I have an old IBM thinkPad laptop that recently went bandy on me so I went out and bought a new one, it was time for an upgrade anyway. The problem that I'm having with the ThinkPad, is that there is a lot of work related documents on there that I could do with accessing and then transfering to my new laptop but it won't boot up. This is what is happening.

Turn the power on, it starts to boot then and a black screen comes up with "We apologize for the inconvenience, but wendows did not start blah, blah blah" then at the bottom you have options of: Safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt and start windows normally. It then counts down from 25 then the windows XP loading screen comes up but thats it. After this is a blue screen apears  with "A problem has been detected and windows needs to shut down" and it then goes back to the begining and starts all over again.

Is there a way to access the laptop or am I officially fooked>  fp.gif

Thanks in advance.   

[finnster01]

There are many much more well versed in the dark arts of computer science on here than me.

But I had a similar issue. If booting it up in safe mode doesn't work, I simply suggest you take it to someone ( a shop or a friend) who can take out your hard disk, put the contents of the harddrive on an external device and put the wanted contents on a memory stick/CD or two. If you have to go to a shop to get it done, it shouldn't cost much anyway. Worked fine for me. At least you save your data

[sacffc]

My solution to a dead computer was similar to Finnster's.  The guy at the computer shop set up the hard drive of the old computer as an external hard drive that I can plug in to the new computer -- cost me about $100.  After copying over all the files I needed, I can use it as a backup device.

[The Equalizer]

No no no no no!!!

You can get a USB HD caddy from Maplins for about £25. Take out the HDD, plug it into the device, attach that to the USB on your new laptop, copy and paste.

Bosh.

[Logicalman]

I agree with Eq on this one, with an additional caveat though. Be very careful handling the exsposed laptop HD, these are both fragile and, being internal, do not have the same dust-proofing as regular external (and full-size internal) HDs.

Once you have the caddy, or HD enclosure, then simply reference it as any other external drive, though I would suggest you get all the files off asap AND this time buy some DVDs and burn the files to those as well.

Perhaps a little late in the game, but for the price of 20 bacon sarnies you can get yourself an external 1Tb HD device with software to create iterative backups of your data - well worth the cost and time, avoids this situation again.

[Ron Sheepskin]

Before you pull the laptop apart...

Safe mode with command prompt will give you a DOS session. If you plug a portable hard drive into a usb port then you can use xcopy to transfer your files from the laptop.

I went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago when Windows went t*ts up on me. After a factory restore I just copied all the documents back and all was well with the world.

[The Equalizer]

Before you pull the laptop apart...

Safe mode with command prompt will give you a DOS session. If you plug a portable hard drive into a usb port then you can use xcopy to transfer your files from the laptop.

I went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago when Windows went t*ts up on me. After a factory restore I just copied all the documents back and all was well with the world.

Why don't you also ask him to perform Chopin's Nocturne Op.9 no. 2 in E on the didgeridoo?

[Ron Sheepskin]

Before you pull the laptop apart...

Safe mode with command prompt will give you a DOS session. If you plug a portable hard drive into a usb port then you can use xcopy to transfer your files from the laptop.

I went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago when Windows went t*ts up on me. After a factory restore I just copied all the documents back and all was well with the world.

Why don't you also ask him to perform Chopin's Nocturne Op. no. 9 in E on the didgeridoo?

Fair point, well made.

[finnster01]

Before you pull the laptop apart...

Safe mode with command prompt will give you a DOS session. If you plug a portable hard drive into a usb port then you can use xcopy to transfer your files from the laptop.

I went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago when Windows went t*ts up on me. After a factory restore I just copied all the documents back and all was well with the world.

Why don't you also ask him to perform Chopin's Nocturne Op. no. 9 in E on the didgeridoo?

Mr Eq, I didn't even know what an HDD caddy was, so your info is very useful as I am defo getting one as I have a shelf of old dodgy messed up laptops that had various degrees of data backups before they got knackered.

Just pulling out my didgeridoo to play an impromptu version of Viva El Fulham...   :clap_hands:

[The Equalizer]

Here's a link to the one that I've got at home, but it's worth shopping around as Maplin's is expensive, but I needed mine immediately.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/sata-usb-hard-drive-docking-station-with-hub-and-cardreader-226653

[Burt]

Before you pull the laptop apart...

Safe mode with command prompt will give you a DOS session. If you plug a portable hard drive into a usb port then you can use xcopy to transfer your files from the laptop.

I went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago when Windows went t*ts up on me. After a factory restore I just copied all the documents back and all was well with the world.

Why don't you also ask him to perform Chopin's Nocturne Op. no. 9 in E on the didgeridoo?

Mr Eq, I didn't even know what an HDD caddy was, so your info is very useful as I am defo getting one as I have a shelf of old dodgy messed up laptops that had various degrees of data backups before they got knackered.

Just pulling out my didgeridoo to play an impromptu version of Viva El Fulham...   :clap_hands:

Wasnt the HDD caddy the guy who told Tiger Woods to shove his thingy up his jacksie?

[Admin]

So, the long and short of the story is.. I can't turn it on?  fp.gif