[E-Paulina]

Help!

My laptop won't start up. It comes up with a weird message on a blue screen saying somthing along the lines of:

Memory Dumping, Windows had to shut down....etc. I've got a new one now but have some files I would like to recover from my old laptop. I've tried many times and left it for a few months hoping it would start up again but having tried this morning the same thing happened.

Is there anyway I can recover some picture/video files from it?


Thanks in advance

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Just found a Product Recovery CD Rom Windows XP Home Edition SP1a, could this help?

[E-Paulina]

Just found a Product Recovery CD Rom Windows XP Home Edition SP1a, could this help?

[BryanW]

Yes you can(most likely)recover data from your old hard drive. I would suggest using a linux distro called a LiveCD. There are many different types of these livecd's but the one i would suggest is Ubuntu LiveCD found here Ubuntu LiveCD. You will also need a USB Pendrive/Thumbdrive, these are pretty cheap now if you don't already have one. I would suggest at least a 2GB one or larger depending on your budget. Howtogeeks also has a nice walkthru for exactly this process found here Howtogeeks walkthru.

G'luck and post back with any questions!

[E-Paulina]

I have a WD Hard Drive, think its 60gb will that work? I'm a bit clueless with computers! Will try your suggestion this weekend. thank you

[BryanW]

A USB thumb drive is different than an IDE drive. If this was a desktop you could slave the 60GB drive as a secondary hard drive, but this is a laptop we are talking about so I doubt that slaving an extra hard drive is an option for you. Newegg is running a fantastic deal on a 2GB thumb drive HERE. Thats what you need, although if you want it faster and be able to do it this weekend you will have to goto a store that sells them and pay abit more.

Just follow the walkthru at howtogeeks and you should be fine, they have covered most issues you will run into. G'luck and let me know when you get your data back!

[E-Paulina]

I got as far as downloading the Ubuntu Cd, but now my laptop doesn't start up at all, its just a black screen. I opened the cd drive and put the cd in and turned it off then on again still a black screen with no action at all. Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks

[BryanW]

Does it power on?(do lights come on)

Does anything come up on the screen, not the XP boot, but the stuff that happens before it, the POST info.

[E-Paulina]

Nope, just the black screen, the light comes on the laptop when I switch it on, but the screen stays black and it doesn't 'bleep' like it used to when started up. I left it like that for about 10 minutes as I could hear the cd spinning around but nothing happened.

[BryanW]

Possible your video took a dump, but it's real hard to say. If this was a desktop I would say try a different video card to rule that out but in your case that's not an option. Someone smarter than me will have to help you from here. It may need some hardware replaced in which case most likely you will have to take it to a shop. For now turn it off and unplug it and let it sit while you wait for someone else to respond here. Try to start it every hour and see if anything changes, I'm really sorry that I can't help you further here. If you get it to boot please send me a PM and I will help you then. G'luck