For all you computer geeks!! I need your help.

nemo lover

Member
I live in PSL, Florida. Thursday night we had a power outage, and our computer was on. Our lights flickered on and off about five times. Then was out for about two hours. Needless to say when we wen't to re-boot the comp it would only re-boot to the windows screen, and then would click off, and re-boot again over and over. Safe mode didn't work, last configured mode didn't work, networking mode, none of them. I couldn't even pull up the Bios.
My husband said the computer did this to him before the outtage. He said the computer did this everytime he would turn the computer on lately (before the outtage), and would eventually start. This time it didn't.
I brought it in to a guy Friday, and he said the hard drive can not be detected. So I needed to replaced it. Then he said thier was a problem with the mother board, and he downloaded a detection device from thier website to fix the problem. That got me wondering was this the original problem not the hard drive.
My question this is the third computer we have had, and in all three our hard drive had to be replaced. I am no whiz when it comes to computers. What are we doing wrong? And is thier any way of retrieving data from the old hard drive? like pictures, email address, school papers?
If any one has any ideas I am very open to suggestions.
 

mhobbs

New Member
Yes you should be able to get the info off the other drive. Just hook it up as a slave drive and access it that way. As for drives going bad, I believe that it probably bad luck. For a series of drives to fail is odd, question though are you taking it to the same computer guy everytime? I think you may want to try a diffrent guy. I believe the chances of 3 bad drives is unlikely.
 

nemo lover

Member
No not the same guy first one my father in law fixed. Second my sisters hubby fixed, and he built the new one. Now the newer one and brought that to a comp shop in fort pierce, fl.
I know its odd thats why I was asking am I doing something wrong?
 

jer4916

Active Member
Im the senior of the computer department for a best buy. First thing, the reason you keep loosing computers is because your not putting them on a BATTERY BACKUP NOT a surge protector....go to your local best buy and ask why..i dont feel like typing. but that will fix your problem there. also odds are you fired your motherboard and your harddrive is fine, the data can still be taken off... dont buy a motherboard locally or anything like that they'll over charge you like theres no tommorrow. go to www.n.e.w.e.g.g.c.o.m i put spaces in there so it didn't lose the sight. also did you buy the computer at best buy with a service plan?...cause if you did you'd be getting a new computer for free.
~chris
any questions,
chrisreistroffer@gmail.com
 
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pisomojado

Guest
Wow they have the best buy nerds trained to push ESP even off hours :p
He is right though, if you have frequent power outages without some kind of line conditioning your going to fry componets. I would recommend going to any big name retailer, and purchasing the cheapest APC UPS, which if memory serves is about $40. You only get about 3 minutes of actual runtime without power, but it will filter voltage so your equipment stops getting owned.
If it matters I tend to about 75 computers and 4 servers and 90 pos units in about 30 locations, and they all the nonservers run the basic apc units.
As far as data recovery you can place that drive in another computer, but you will want someone expirienced to do it. It can be a real PITA on a vanilla motherboard.
 

nemo lover

Member
Hi Chris as far as newegg be there done that.. all my computer parts were purchased their. Yes my pops reccomened a battery backup. as far as retrieving info the hard drive was hooked up to a slaved drive and could not be read. What else could I do?
 

jer4916

Active Member
hate to say this, but you'll need a pro to get the data off...and its not going to be cheap....
~chris
when im doing data recovery i charge around $300/$400 per hour.
 

nemo lover

Member
ok I'll have to talk to my cousin who is going to school for computers. see if maybe he can do it, or maybe bring it to school and see if maybe they can do it for like a project or something. Thanks for all the advice so far.
 

jer4916

Active Member
only people i know that can do data recovery and actully get your data back...is people with certs.... but i would give it a try.... but if its important...i would pay a pro...not worth having your stuff screwed up.
 
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pisomojado

Guest
If your data is that important the way I have succesfully recovered a drive is to get an EXACT same model and revision drive as the one you have now, and swap the logic boards. Gives you maybe a 50/50 chance of being able to access it. but depending on the drive you may need a soldering iron and a star screw set.If not, there are pro data recovery services that start at $10k and up.
 

jer4916

Active Member
i dont know if a screw driver and a soddering iron will help YOU out...lol...but data recovery isn't cheap.
im CHEAP for data recovery
 

xpdition03

Member
Originally Posted by nemo lover
Hi Chris as far as newegg be there done that.. all my computer parts were purchased their. Yes my pops reccomened a battery backup. as far as retrieving info the hard drive was hooked up to a slaved drive and could not be read. What else could I do?
Are you sure you set the jumpers correctly? Sometimes the master hard disk drive needs to be jumped as master not single and the slave drive needs to be jumped as slave for your BIOS to pick up.
 
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