Russian Site and the other one

[Howard]

What i am having , is that the laptop turns on , and is fine until you get to the black screen with 'Windows XP' on it with a little box with three blue blocks that scroll across ...

It just hangs on that part , won't go further , the drive stops spinning and that's it ...

Won't start in safe mode either , just hangs on the XP screen ....



Occasionally when i turn it back off after this has happened , when i turn it back on , it goes to a blue screen and says it is checking the disk.

 

[Sp!ke]

At least the disk is partially working. I suspect most of the data is recoverable by attaching the drive as a slave. If a chkdisk doesnt fix it enough to boot then you'll be needing to do a reinstall of windows onto the new disk though I suspect.

 

[Inkyskin]

Thats exactly how mine died. Now, this is what I did (It's common practice for drives actually):

Stick the drive in an air tight bag, and suck all the air out. Put it in the freezer overnight. Take it out the next morning and plug it in - it "may" boot up just fine, and this will give you 10 - 20 mins to grab files and move them over to the new drive.

The freeze of the drive helps re-align the arms the read the platters on the hard drive temporarily as the cold contracts them.

It doesnt alwyas work, but if you cant use it anyway, its worth a shot!

ONLY DO THIS AS A LAST RESORT IF THE DRIVE WONT WORK AFTER REINSTALL / CHKDISK ETC - IT CAN DAMAGE THE DISK LONG TERM - I ONLY DO THIS IF IM ABOUT TO THROW THE DRIVE OUT

 

[Howard]

I'll try it tomorrow .... I suspect my bout of 'percussive maintenance' after it wouldn't work for the umpteenth time may have done for it though ....

I've got the recovery disks and all the driver disks , how difficult is it to re-install windows and all the drivers ?

Could a plum like me do it ?

 

[Inkyskin]

If you have a recovery disk it will be easier than normal as they are designed for non computer users - normally you just stick it in and reboot, click ok a few times and it will do the rest.

 

[Howard]

So , bung a brand new HD into the laptop ...

Stick the CD in and away you go ?

 

[vijilants]

backup to an online backup company.

This way, your covered for all eventualities.

Any good online back up companies you could recommend ?

Thanks

 

[television]

Any good online back up companies you could recommend ?

Thanks

Sounds good to me, I did not know that there was such a thing

 

[Howard]

Sorry to drag this up again , trying to retrieve links again ...

Anyone got the link to the DVLA site to lookup the details

 

[Dieselman]

Askmid
http://www.askmid.com/

Car tax
http://www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/?SKIN=directgov

 

[PAPA]

The PSU is a wink link in most PC's, The number of peeps I know who are on their 4th 5th PSU is mad, I had a load fail, and had a guts full, I have one of these now and has never failed, Plus it has a life time warranty

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-001-BG

I am not involed in anyway with the seller or makers.

 

[pauldmaynard]

/old.mbclub.ru/mb/vin/?lng=eng

 

[Howard]

As always fellas , many thanks .

New hard drive is working a treat ! :bannana: