[dfb500]

Hello, I own a HP Pavillion m9000z desktop that is less than a year old. The other day the computer began beeping on startup and I never even get past the BIOS boot, black screen etc. It is a series of 2 beeps, one short one long that continues indefinitely. I have alreayd checked the HP site and this beep series is not listed. Anyway, I swapped out the 4 RAM cards to check if it was a memory problem etc, nothing worked, the PC is under warranty so it probably need to go back to HP.

My question is really this: Can I retieve the contents of my harddrive (personal folders) even if the computer isn't starting up? If so what equipment do I need? Cables, zip drive etc. I am fairly computer literate as I am an application programmer but I am not so great with hardware so be gentle. If the answer is no then I am screwed cause I do not have backups.

Thanks

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There are a couple ways to retrieve the data from the drive.

1. Hang the drive as a slave on another unit.
2. Install the drive in a USB external case and then retrieve.
3. Download and burn to a CD "puppy linux). You can run this from the cd. I have not done this yet, but another specialist uses it, and has detailed instructions.

I found instructions HERE in post 3.
You will need a cd burner or flash drive.

[123Runner]

There are a couple ways to retrieve the data from the drive.

1. Hang the drive as a slave on another unit.
2. Install the drive in a USB external case and then retrieve.
3. Download and burn to a CD "puppy linux). You can run this from the cd. I have not done this yet, but another specialist uses it, and has detailed instructions.

I found instructions HERE in post 3.
You will need a cd burner or flash drive.

[hfcg]

Hello,
Since you can not even get to the bios screen, I do not think Puppy Linux is going to work.
Click here to read a decent tutorial on installing a hard drive.
I would realy suggest the easier route of purchasing an external USB inclosure and accessing the files that way, they are not expensive.

[dfb500]

Thank you all for the responses but it turned out to be the problem was the RAM cards were not inserted all the way.....so kids always look for the simplest solution first