Desktop died Advice

[Ogandydancer]

My desktop finally died due to power surges. I have for a longwhile had power flickers from my citys substation and if finally killed my desktop. I am thinking replace the harddrive with new and re format with original Vista. Anyone have any suggesstions as to what to look for in regards to not having my data on the old drive compromised? I want to save all my documents and pictures if possible.

 

[cddanjr]

have you had your computer checked to see if it only blew an internal fuse, designed to protect the motherboard? I dont know if ALL electronic devices are protected this way. I had accidentally connected the battery backward in a BMW, and was told it was gonna cost over a grand to replace the "brain" in the electronics in my car. I found a .49 cent fuse in the "brain" a replaced it, car was good as new.

Could be just a blown safety fuse, or you need a new Mac.

Chuck

 

[jaykellogg]

Many computers have a power supply. If this is the case with yours, probably all you have to do is replace the power supply.

Regarding the hard drive, assuming you still want to replace it, I would take the old one out, put in a new one and load the OS you choose. Go online and get all the updates, then reinstall the old hard drive as a slave. You will still have all your files that way. That is pretty easy, i did that to the computer I had before this one.

 

[jcelect]

Get rid of vista! ! !

There are many reasons to buy new! First, and formost, you will be done with Vista! That operating system caused me more headaches than any other thing in the computer world! My suggestion is to buy a good laptop. When you plug in the power supply/battery charger it acts like a surge protector and the battery is your UPS. You will have the ability to use a larger screen, wireless mouse, and any printer if you wish. Now you will remove your old hard drive, buy a power supply for it and plug it into your new laptop as an external storage device, the same as a disk, thumb drive, flash drive, or many other external storage devices! This will allow you to go into your old drive and transfer any and all info/pics you want to keep or just leave them where they are and use the drive as an external storage device!
jcelect

 

[NinemiLL]

Get an Apple.

 

[Kanewpadle]

I would take the computer to the store and see what your options are. It may be worth a small fee to find out. Computers change so quickly that it's hard to keep up with.

Is it the power supply or the hard drive? Motherboard? Something else?

I highly recommend a UPS battery backup once you get it fixed.

 

[venomballistics]

1) lose vista in favor of windows 7
2) you may run multiple hard drives, use the old one for mass storage
3) don't be afraid of building a computer Its really quite easy to do. almost akin to screwing light bulbs into a handful of lamps and plugging them in.

 

[Malpasowildlifer]

Get an Apple.

Get one.....

 

[USAF385]

Once you go Mac you don't go back!




(Sent via iPhone)

 

[jaylind]

Depending on what you use your computer for. You could buy an affordable laptop and when you are at home connect it to that current monitor keyboard and mouse. Then just disconnect when you need to be portable. Buy a hard drive enclosure for the old drive and pull the files you need to the new computer. Then you will have a back up on the external hard drive. If you do this be sure to check the connections on the current monitor to insure the are compatible.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[3dots]

I'm with Data Recovery Services (datarecovery.net), based in Dallas for 32 years. All we do is recovery from failed storage media whether it's 5.25" floppy or enterprise class fibre channel RAID arrays.

jcelect has the right idea here and is what I initially recommend to my clients to try before submitting for recovery. Go to your local computer store and purchase an external USB drive enclosure that will support the interface (PATA or SATA). Install the drive in the enclosure and attach it to a PC that's up and running. If the file system on the drive is not damaged/corrupted, you will have no problem accessing your files.

 

[J Rich]

I would say it's time to upgrade. Vista is way outdated. Get something that fits you whether it's a Mac, or a Dell whatever.

There are a few options.
1. Take the old computer to a shop and get them to load all old info to disc, external hard drive, or to the new PC.

2. Install old hard drive in new PC and use as a piggy back slave.

I would use an online backup service, or do a manual back up to an external HD or disc every few months to help avoid these headaches in the future.

 

[OneJzsupra]

1) lose vista in favor of windows 7
2) you may run multiple hard drives, use the old one for mass storage
3) don't be afraid of building a computer Its really quite easy to do. almost akin to screwing light bulbs into a handful of lamps and plugging them in.

I would have to agree,
I built my first system 6 months ago and it was super easy to do. If you need help post here and we can even help put together a system for you that is with in your budget.

 

[rwsmith]

Same problem

My desktop finally died due to power surges. I have for a longwhile had power flickers from my citys substation and if finally killed my desktop. I am thinking replace the harddrive with new and re format with original Vista. Anyone have any suggesstions as to what to look for in regards to not having my data on the old drive compromised? I want to save all my documents and pictures if possible.

Make sure you have a good battery backup which will buffer the power somewhat. Most cheap ones are just on/off and will only offer protection against power offs. The better ones are continuous from the battery and condition the line fluctuations.

Battery back up and conditioner. They cost about $250. APC has one.

Update: BTW IF you get a new computer or drive Windows 7 runs a lot better than Vista, which is very sluggish. It is also very stable and gives very little trouble.

 

[cddanjr]

Backup and conditioner? My hair is gonna LOVE this!!

Woohoo!

Chuck

 

[Rintimtin]

Mine died a while back just bit the bullet and got a new one lost all my files and pic's, but I had alot of them stored on thumb drives, and in my email. Thankfully it was about 3 months after I graduated.

 

[cmort666]

3) don't be afraid of building a computer Its really quite easy to do. almost akin to screwing light bulbs into a handful of lamps and plugging them in.

I compare it to building an AR-15. There are tons of interchangeable options. You just have to put them together.

And definitely retain the old hard drive if its serviceable.

 

[Airpark]

WOW!!!! I knew I was old, being an octogenerian, but I did not think that much about it.

I'm stlll the proud owner of a old WIN-98 system...has lots of old dbase files and programs that I wrote and still use.

Like William Buckley of the National Review said when someone told him to upgrade from WORDSTAR...NOT...Word Perfect....he asked, "Why, I know all about this and it publishes my magazine for me."

Viksta...to me is a view of something special.

Windows 7 is the number of windows in the house.

MAC..is short for the burger place.

UNCOMPLICATE your life and ENJOY it!

 

[kwselke]

As with someone saying they want to buy a new gun, I'll ask what do you want to do with it and how much do you want to spend? Do you have a large investment in ammo, I mean software that will be of no use if you change calibers?

The computer I write this on is five years old and came with Vista. I had no issues with Vista, but jumped to Windows 7 at the Release Candidate stage. Windows 7 is a less resource intensive version of Vista. I would have upgraded to Win-8, but my dual monitors are not touch enabled, my BIOS booting system can not avail itself of the Safe Boot start-up in Win-8, and Win-8 would not run my MS Office 2003 Pro software that has another year of support left on it.

I see many folk on this forum that reference the fact that they are using nothing but a smartphone. Over the last 30 years I've asked people what they want to do with their computer and had them reply email, surf the web, do word processing, and that they do not want to spend much money. These are the ones that usually call me six to eight months later and say something like... I'm trying to burn a MOV file from my new camera to a DVD and cannot format it to a file type my mother-in-law's DVD player can read.

The issue is what do you want to do and how much do you want to spend. There is no reason to recommend an elephant gun when you cannot afford one, especially if all you want to shoot is squirrels

 

[durango]

My desktop finally died due to power surges. I have for a longwhile had power flickers from my citys substation and if finally killed my desktop. I am thinking replace the harddrive with new and re format with original Vista. Anyone have any suggesstions as to what to look for in regards to not having my data on the old drive compromised? I want to save all my documents and pictures if possible.

First: I'd recommend that you consider purchasing an external power surge protector, sometimes called a "UPS." It will give your valuable electronics a better chance at surviving random surges.

Second: Do you know which parts of your system were fried in the power surge? If not, you need to take it to someone who can look directly at it and tell you for sure.

Likely culprits are the power supply (costs ~$50-$100 depending on what type you buy), the motherboard (you're looking at ~$80-$120 depending on whether you can replace it easily, otherwise you may be looking at buying an entirely new system), the hard drive (costs ~$80 - in which case, you'll have lost all your data. This happens occasionally, but less frequently than the other two).

If you have a home-built pc, replacing parts should be pretty painless. If you have a store-bought pc, replacing parts will require that you look at the manual and maybe call up the company's tech support to find out what parts you can get and how much you will be spending to get them.

::SAVING YOUR DATA::
If your hard drive has survived the surge, what I would recommend is that you see if your local computer guy can back up your data off of it and give you a disk or external hard drive to restore it onto your new hard drive. Keep your old hard drive and store it in a dust/static free bag, in case you need it again down the road.

If your hard drive did not survive the surge and is scrambled, then you have probably lost all your data on that drive. If you want to spend thousands of dollars trying to restore that data, your local computer guy can point you to data recovery companies, but it is VERY expensive and cost prohibitive.

Per Vista:
Spend ~$100 at Newegg.com or Amazon.com and buy the OEM version of Windows 7 Home or Pro. Make sure you buy the full version, not the "upgrade" version. If you buy a hard drive with it, sometimes Newegg will cut you a deal and knock off a few bucks on the price.

Per your new computer:
Whether you get a PC or go for a new Mac, you need to buy an external hard drive and make sure to make a backup copy of your important files on that drive. Make sure that you backup your files often. Once your backup is complete, do not leave your external hard drive hooked up to your computer. If you have a power surge, it may surge both your system and your external devices (like the external hard drive) and fry them all. Instead, safely disconnect your external hard drive after your backup is finished and keep it unplugged from both power and data until you need it again.

If you have pictures and documents that you are concerned about losing, make DVD or CD backups of those files along with backing them up to external storage.

You can also use online services like Carbonite, but keep in mind that it will require an Internet connection and if you lose access to the Internet, you'll lose access to your backups.

I hope that helps. If you have other questions, feel free to pm me.