[jeevesthestag]

Hi,

I've had the above desktop computer in the garage over the winter unused.

I now need to use it because it is the backup of my music collection and my ipod has been wiped.

When I first tried to start it up, the fan whirred around and nothing started. It sounded like a car trying to start with a dead battery.

After 5 minutes of this, it kicked in and started up as normal.

About 15 minutes of me using it to transfer the music from the desktop to an external hard drive and it instantly shut down (as if it was out of power).

The green light at the front flashed.

I tried to turn it back on but it didn't work.

I left it for 10 minutes and tried again.

This time it started up as normal and lasted for about 5 minutes before shutting down in the same way.

Now it won't start up at all, there is no green light or sign of life at all when I try to turn it on.

I have tried another power supply, but it hasn't made any difference.

I intend to throw the computer away anyway if I can put the music on the hard drive on to an external hard drive.

So I'd really appreciate your help in one of two ways.

1. Help me to start up the computer so I can easily transfer the data to the external hard drive.

2. Explain how I can retrieve the hard drive from the desktop and link it up to my external hard drive.

Thanks for your help

Jamie

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Did you allow the computer to become acclimated to the indoor environment before turning it on? Did you clean out all the dust and spider webs?

Your best bet may be to pull the hard drive and install it in an enclosure or docking station, attach it to a working computer, then copy your files over. Alternatively, you can install it in another computer as a secondary (NOT boot) drive, then copy them over.

[Digerati]

Did you allow the computer to become acclimated to the indoor environment before turning it on? Did you clean out all the dust and spider webs?

Your best bet may be to pull the hard drive and install it in an enclosure or docking station, attach it to a working computer, then copy your files over. Alternatively, you can install it in another computer as a secondary (NOT boot) drive, then copy them over.

[jeevesthestag]

Thank you for the info. I didn't let it become acclimated but it has been indoors now for over 5 hours and still won't start (although it did start twice more since my last post) I'll keep trying.

If I can't get it to start again I'll get a case for the hard drive as suggested. I don't have another desktop to put the hard drive into, only laptops.

Thank you again.

Jamie