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applesauce · 06-28-2006, 09:04 PM

I was using my laptop the other day and the HD started making funny noises, kind of like a grinding sound. It did it for a minute or so and stopped, worked fine for another hour or two, started making the noise again, and froze up entirely (still making the noise). Turned it off, let it sit a minute, turned it back on. It was still making the noise, but it wouldn't boot all the way. Goes throught the Dell splash screen, and the WinXP logo appears like it's starting to load, but then the screen flashes and it starts rebooting all over again and says Windows didn't load properly on the previous attempt and do I want to boot normally, boot into safe mode, boot w/ last known good config, etc. No matter which option I pick, it does the same thing: the WinXP logo comes up for a minute then it starts rebooting again. I'm assuming part of the drive went bad, and it's a part of it where system files are located, since the computer recognizes the drive but it won't boot all the way. Tried using the Windows recovery disk that came with the computer, but it freezes up halfway through repairing it.

What are my options for getting any files that still exist off the HD? The computer itself is a Dell Inspirion 1000 (laptop), single HD, single CD drive (CDRW/DVD combo), and no floppy drive, so I would imagine that the easiest way would be to burn them to a CD somehow. It also has internet access, both wireless and through a home network, but none of the computers on the network are set up for file sharing. I have an external USB HD that I could use to put the files on as well, if I could get the drive into some OS that has USB support. As far as I know, it's not possible to put a laptop HD in a desktop, but if there's a way, I could put it in the computer I'm currently using and see if it recognizes the file system. I guess my question is, what exactly should I do and how exactly do I go about doing it? What software do I need? There's nothing on there that's irreplacable or that I would die without, but it'd be nice to have some of the files back.

06-28-2006, 09:04 PM	#1 (permalink)
applesauce Upright	dead hard drive I was using my laptop the other day and the HD started making funny noises, kind of like a grinding sound. It did it for a minute or so and stopped, worked fine for another hour or two, started making the noise again, and froze up entirely (still making the noise). Turned it off, let it sit a minute, turned it back on. It was still making the noise, but it wouldn't boot all the way. Goes throught the Dell splash screen, and the WinXP logo appears like it's starting to load, but then the screen flashes and it starts rebooting all over again and says Windows didn't load properly on the previous attempt and do I want to boot normally, boot into safe mode, boot w/ last known good config, etc. No matter which option I pick, it does the same thing: the WinXP logo comes up for a minute then it starts rebooting again. I'm assuming part of the drive went bad, and it's a part of it where system files are located, since the computer recognizes the drive but it won't boot all the way. Tried using the Windows recovery disk that came with the computer, but it freezes up halfway through repairing it. What are my options for getting any files that still exist off the HD? The computer itself is a Dell Inspirion 1000 (laptop), single HD, single CD drive (CDRW/DVD combo), and no floppy drive, so I would imagine that the easiest way would be to burn them to a CD somehow. It also has internet access, both wireless and through a home network, but none of the computers on the network are set up for file sharing. I have an external USB HD that I could use to put the files on as well, if I could get the drive into some OS that has USB support. As far as I know, it's not possible to put a laptop HD in a desktop, but if there's a way, I could put it in the computer I'm currently using and see if it recognizes the file system. I guess my question is, what exactly should I do and how exactly do I go about doing it? What software do I need? There's nothing on there that's irreplacable or that I would die without, but it'd be nice to have some of the files back.