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Well, it finally happened. I've been doing everything I can to keep my computer alive for the past few months, but I can do no more and this morning it finally breathed it's last grinding breath. Since I can't really hunch over my tablet (like I'm doing now,) squinting at the screen and typing on a tiny bluetooth keyboard for 6 to 8 hours a day to be productive I had to get a new-ish laptop. Unfortunately this meant taking a good chunk of money from my slush fund for getting a place to live and living expenses for the end of the summer, but it was an investment that I had to make since my writing is my only income right now and a good friend saw that I had some put aside for this eventuality, even if I was hoping it wouldn't come to pass. At least I got it half price so it was under $400 and with the specs it should be a pretty solid working computer for me.
I've been expecting this for a while so most of my stuff was backed up off the computer but I did lose most of the last chapter of I Wish Book 4, part of a short story I was working on, and all of the progress I made on the first chapter of the second book of Apocalypse Dawn *sigh* The laptop could take a week or so to arrive so I likely won't be posting much of anything until it gets here and I can get caught up on some work.
Thanks for your patience and big hugs to you all,
Amethyst
Comments
Salvage?
"But that's impossible."
You might be able to pull the hard disk / SSD / whatever from your old computer and rescue the data by putting the old HD into the new computer (this, of course, assumes that the old HD wasn't the failing part). Then the OS of the new machine should be able to recognize the old HD. Maybe this helps.
Reader cable
There are USB adaptor cables to externally connect an old hard drive to a new computer to try rescuing the data on it. One wouldn't be that expensive and could allow the old drive or even a new drive being used for off computer storage.
as long as drive and file encryption was not turned on.
IF drive and file encryption were turned on, that could be an issue, it all depends on how the files were encrypted.
i have had lost files that way, SO I tend not to turn that feature on, but if it was a 3rd party app there normally was a way to use your files again. Windows file encryption was a pain. Yes it protected your files if your computer was stollen, but it also made hardware failures a bigger pain, when you could not boot from the previous drive due to changes in hardware.
"Cortana is watching you!"
Hard Drive
Remove the hard drive, find a container, and you may still be able to keep what you think you lost.
You might even be able to recover the computer. I have one laptop computer that's been living on borrowed time for at least four years. It's a story that's longer than my drabbles, but shorter than my long stories (and even my short stories).
-- Daphne Xu
sorry to hear this
huggles
All is not lost.
Amy:
The solution to this problem is called a Rocketfish. It is an internal hard drive to external hard drive enclosure kit. Simply take the hard drive out of your old computer, plug it into this device and it will become an external hard drive for the new computer. No data will be lost. Simply plug it in and it appears as another hard drive under file manager. You can find them on Amazon.
I have one and it is my go to when my computer experiences the blue screen of death. So far it has saved the data from 8 computers. It also allows full use of old hard drives. Simply switch them out and plug them in.
Hope this helps.
Piper
I'm not a prolific writer
But I leave a ScanDisk flash drive plugged in continuously. It came with a password secured back up software. Any day I do any writing or any other data storage, I back it up. It only takes about two minutes to backup all my data files. I don't do a full computer back up. I have a recovery disk and back ups of all my needed software so, push comes to shove, I can recreate that. So I only back up data.
I had a scare late last year when I was doing massive creative stuff for One Dozen Roses. I didn't notice the power cable on my laptop had became dislodged and I ran on batteries. When I went to shutdown the computer that night, it wanted to do system up date and so I let it. It was one of those that would restart the computer mid update. When it went to reboot I got a blue screen and couldn't get it to fire up again. I unplugged it and got ready to search out a repair person.
While on the phone to my IT educated son-in-law, he asked what notice the computer displayed when it refused to restart. So I plugged it back in to see if I could get it to re-display the notice. It fired right up. So in researching what was going on in the system right then I check the battery status and found it at about 3% and charging. With my battery saver activated it is supposed to never charge more that about 67% in order to keep from over charging the battery and prolong the life of the battery. Problem solved. It's been great since. I did opt to put a battery monitor in the task bar so I can get a visual as to the level of charge at anytime
You can get those hard drive conversion kits from most any computer supply. Best Buy has them. They are really inexpensive. Just be sure to ground yourself before handling the hard drive so you don't zap the circuit board on the drive. The process is pretty self-explanatory.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
New Laptop
If you are running Windows and you plan on keeping a computer beyond 2025 then it pays to check whether it is compatible with the next version of Windows, Windows 11.
Frankly it has onerous hardware requirements, and for Windows Home an intrusive requirement of having a Microsoft account.
Point is, Windows 10 is going End Of Life in October of 2025 and while Microsoft is 'generously' giving an upgrade your hardware has to meet certain requirements to get said upgrade.
So if you are a 'skinflint' and still running a roughly 5 years or older machine it will likely not be eligible for Windows 11.
Personally I will switch to Linux when the time comes as I don't do much on Windows I can't do on Linux, especially when surfing the Web.
Remember when microsoft
Remember when microsoft bleated that Windows 10 was going to be their last operating system, because going forward it was just going to be upgrades/service packs?
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
W11 is just Lipstick on the even fatter W10 pig
and a horrible off white colour at that.
W11 is a very bloated version of W10 with little for most users. Oh wait... it has an macOS like dock and rounded corners to windows.
Resist it as long as possible but MS will really work hard to push the [cough][cough] upgrade to your system... Sorry, it isn't your system. It is owned lock stock and barrel by MS because they think that they can do what they want and whenever they want with it.
Samantha
Little for most users
Well, yes and no. One of the more enticing features is DirectStorage which will help entice the gamer set, a significant driver towards PC adoption during this pandemic. DirectStorage is already available in game consoles for speedy loading of game textures and such.
The TPM 2.0 requirement will put teeth into DRM to a whole new level as that encryption support will lock down the content, hard.
As far as blocking installation goes I think we might be able to use the 64GB storage requirement against that by subdividing the single C: drive most people have into two or more with the C: drive large enough to keep W10 updating as long as it can while frustrating any 'compatibility' checker.
Said checker will likely bleat and bleat that an update is not possible due to lack of storage but, tough, just ignore it or figure out a way to gain ownership of that executable and remove it.
It is a totally useless update unless you are a gamer.
Hard drive
Get a cable to connect to the old hard drive so you can get your files back.
hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna
I'm by no means...
A computer savy person, but I seem to remember a trick where you remove the dead hard drive, freeze it (I'd assume in a sealed freezer bag), and then remove and plug it into whatever and download your data... Someone else out here must know better how exactly to do this.... Hugs, Talia
that was a trick for an overheating hard drive.
In the past when the drive would overheat, either the bearing would seize, or other temp related failure.
You would put the drive in the freezer for a while and then plug it back in to retrieve your data before the temp got too high again.
It worked about 50% of the time for me when it was a temperature related failure.
"Cortana is watching you!"
What came to mind when I read the title
All I could think of was the line from the movie Passengers when Jennifer Lawrence put Chis Pratt in the autodoc and the computer stated: 'The patient is dead.'
Depending upon what failed on your computer and how important the documents you lost are, it looks like you have plenty of options.
Thanks everyone
I've read through all of your suggestions and I'm looking into an external hard drive enclosure to see if I can access the data on the old hard drive. I got a notice saying theat the laptop shipped today by ground so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be here sometime next week. Thanks for all the advice and support, I really appreciate it =.
*big hugs to you all*
Amethyst
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
New laptop
If the new laptop has 2 spaces for HDs (and the connectors fit the old HD and the HD sizes are the same), then you can avoid the external enclosure. Of course you have to know what you're doing when putting the old HD into a 2nd slot, otherwise you might damage the new machine.
That could be a problem
The old computer is a desktop so there's no way I'll be able to fit the drive in a laptop lol
*big hugs*
Amethyst
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
Desktop
Desktop HDs usually have a 3.5" form factor. If that's the case then you're out of luck "transplanting" the drive and an external enclosure is needed. If the old HD has a form factor of 2.5" or less then "transplanting" might work. The next thing to look for is the type of data / power connector for HDs. Old computers (before 2003) had PATA / molex stuff. After 2003 SATA was gradually rolled out in PCs. So if you need an external enclosure make sure that it has the correct internal connectors by checking what connectors the old HD has and lookup the above keywords in wikipedia. Maybe this helps a little bit.
If it's a desktop sized hard
If it's a desktop sized hard drive, let me know, and I'll ship up one of my old enclosures, at least enough to hold a hard drive. It shouldn't break the bank, as it'll be pretty light without a hard drive in it.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
don't be so sure.
I purchased some adapters to make a four laptop drives mount in my desktop. While the manufacturer probably wouldn't do this, laptop drives have the same connections as a desktop, so it's only mounting that is a problem (unless your desktop is really old and has IDE drives), however, I believe that mounting the drive in an external case is probably your best bet.
PS. Before someone asks, the four drives are 1Tb drives, which were mounted in a server that required them. They were relatively new, so I didn't want to waste them. I have 1 as the system drive and 3 in a raid 0 so they're read as 1 faster drive worth 2.7 Tb.
Hugs!
Rosemary
The difference is that a
The difference is that a desktop hard drive requires a separate power supply. Laptop hard drives can get enough power from a standard USB 2 or 3 port directly. I have one early SATA external drive (laptop) that has a split cable. you plugged it into -two- usb ports. One for power and data, and the other for additional power if it was an older (low power) USB port.
So, laptop (2.5" drive) adapters just have a USB. Desktop (3.5" drive) adapters have a power supply _and_ usb.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.