Help!!! Laptop problem

[Peji911]

OK, so here's the story.

My g/f bought a Lenovo laptop and yesterday windows became corrupt (weird, considering she only uses it for school stuff and doesnt really even use the net on it, because she has a desktop). The computer is only 4 months old and has pretty good specs.

Anywho, she put the product key that came with it when it asks it too, but it doesnt recognize it. In safe mode, it doesnt read cds, so she cant burn her school stuff or pictures.

It used to have windows on it, but it might be a good time to put XP. The problem is that she NEEDS to get her pics/school stuff off before re-installing windows--if she can even do so.

So.... how can she get that stuff out? And if she installs a new windows, should that eliminate the problems?

Thx

[e0820]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

I dont know what you mean by, "product key isnt recognized" & "it used to have windows" - So here goes, A reinstall should not erase any data from documents and settings.

If you dont want to risk it,,

If she has enough space on the hard drive then install windows into a seperate directory (ex; C:\WINXP) then you will have the corrupt windows and the good new install of windows (which is what you will boot to). Since the new windows is working then you can goto documents and settings\'girlfriends name here' and pull off whatever onto cd or usbkey. After awhile I would dump everything format and start fresh. good luck

[Peji911]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

Basically what Im saying is that under the laptop it shows her product ID but it won't recognize it, for whatever reason.

What I want to do is simple: grab word documents. The fastest/easiet way to do this will suffice.

[mgoblue]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

Basically what Im saying is that under the laptop it shows her product ID but it won't recognize it, for whatever reason.

What I want to do is simple: grab word documents. The fastest/easiet way to do this will suffice.

Maybe remove the HD and get one of those mini-IDE to IDE adapters so you can pop it into a desktop?

[snepp]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

Tell her to get a $10 USB memory stick. Should be keeping a backup copy of important documents anyway and they make a great place to keep them (easily portable).

[p_rushing]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

you can pull the harddrive out and hook it up to the desktop or if you install windows over the other windows, it "should" move the current stuff to windows.old folder

[Peji911]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

That stuff is too complicated for me..lol

Do you think Ubuntu would work?

Anyone know how I would use it?

[GBrushTWood]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

If you want to recover the data, just rip out the hard drive, then buy an external hard drive enclosure from Microcenter.

Here is one that I used to use for my company: http://microcenter.com/single_produc...uct_id=0240900

Pretty cheap too. Then once you put the HDD in that enclosure, attach it to any working computer via USB cable, and the disk should show up under My Computer. Assuming you physical disk drive isn't damaged, you should be able to recover data this way.

[Peji911]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

If you want to recover the data, just rip out the hard drive, then buy an external hard drive enclosure from Microcenter.

Here is one that I used to use for my company: http://microcenter.com/single_produc...uct_id=0240900

Pretty cheap too. Then once you put the HDD in that enclosure, attach it to any working computer via USB cable, and the disk should show up under My Computer. Assuming you physical disk drive isn't damaged, you should be able to recover data this way.

I appreciate the help, but again, thats too complicated for me. The simpler the better. I heard its possible through safe mode but her dvd drive nor usb works...weird.

[e0820]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

I appreciate the help, but again, thats too complicated for me. The simpler the better. I heard its possible through safe mode but her dvd drive nor usb works...weird.

If windows was installed on a 32bit file system then you could use a bootdisk to boot off of with usb drivers. Then you can pull stuff off using dos (only fat32 - ntfs wont work) onto a usbkey

[Peji911]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

If windows was installed on a 32bit file system then you could use a bootdisk to boot off of with usb drivers. Then you can pull stuff off using dos (only fat32 - ntfs wont work) onto a usbkey

Arggg, no clue what it's on. Hopefully Fat32, I guess.

Thx

[p_rushing]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

Honestly, if you can't take the drive out and hook it up to another pc, anything else is probably going to be to hard for you to do. You can create a bootdisk or cd that will allow you to hook up a usb drive and write the data or just copy the files to another folder. You will need some dos knowledge to do that though.

[Peji911]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

Honestly, if you can't take the drive out and hook it up to another pc, anything else is probably going to be to hard for you to do. You can create a bootdisk or cd that will allow you to hook up a usb drive and write the data or just copy the files to another folder. You will need some dos knowledge to do that though.

Probably my best bet.

Opening up a laptop HD is harder than desktop. I dont want to take risks.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

Ubuntu might work.

[e0820]

Re: Help!!! Laptop problem

Probably my best bet.

Opening up a laptop HD is harder than desktop. I dont want to take risks.

Usually laptops have a access door on the side, you would slide it down and pull out the drive, unscrew a few screws and pull it out from its cage. Then lay it into your USB enclosure and attatch the IDE/USB/SATA interface and that should be it. Just send me the laptop Ill do it for you, haha j/k.