My laptop has died

[accelerator]

I like Dell laptops, I have an Inspiron 1545. I particularly like the keyboards on them as they are easy to type on, otherwise I might be tempted by a MacBook Pro, but that has a flat keyboard which I find hopelessly uncomfortable. I boost the RAM in my laptop up to 4GB for performance, and usually go for a mid-range processor. I also feel Samsung laptops are reasonably reliable too.

I'm sure you'll be treating yourself to an external USB hard drive for your backups too ...

Also, as others have said, your issue does not sound like a hard drive failure, which should be good news for your data recovery.

Rgds

 

[Systreg]

Just had a thought, my kids computer I'm on now is 2Gb RAM and 160GB HD, my laptop is the same spec, can I take the HD out of my broken laptop and put it in his laptop to see if it boots up on here?

His is a Toshiba and mine is an HP, are they all the same standard fittings on laptop HD's to be able to do that?

 

[accelerator]

Just had a thought, my kids computer I'm on now is 2Gb RAM and 160GB HD, my laptop is the same spec, can I take the HD out of my broken laptop and put it in his laptop to see if it boots up on here?

His is a Toshiba and mine is an HP, are they all the same standard fittings on laptop HD's to be able to do that?

You can't do that because all the software drivers etc etc required by the Toshiba will be different to those on your computer.

If you want to investigate the hard drive, then the separate caddy mentioned by Edwin would be your best option.

Rgds

 

[Systreg]

Thanks Accellerator, had a feeling that may be the case, new laptop tomorrow it definitely is then, I'll check out the Dell range and see what they have to offer, another bloody thing is it'll have Windows 7 on it, it's got that on this laptop and I hate it, I like the old set up where you can change the start menu up like the old Windows systems have it, changed it to that on my busted Vista laptop, but they don't have that option on Windows 7, swines grrrrrr

 

[fish]

Close your eyes, clench your teeth, dig deep in wallet, get a Mac. Forever feel the joy

 

[Systreg]

Close your eyes, clench your teeth, dig deep in wallet, get a Mac. Forever feel the joy

Hell no, I want a computer :lol:

 

[mbignell]

True what Accellerator said but may be a way around it " If "

Both hard drives are either " SATA " or " PATA " , If one is sata and the other pata then no can't be done unless you fart about trying to find a cable to convert from one to other.

If both drives are the same then you could fit your drive in your sons laptop and boot your son's laptop via a floppy drive and a " DOS " system disc with the required files on the disc to copy the file you need back to floppy disc, This is assuming that your hard drive is working and your sons laptop is able to boot from a floppy drive.

Never used Vista or 7, Took me a long time to move from Windows 98 to XP

Edit: Just remembered the drives are likely to be NTFS so scratch the dos disc and try a system disc from XP

Cheers
Malc

Thanks Accellerator, had a feeling that may be the case, new laptop tomorrow it definitely is then, I'll check out the Dell range and see what they have to offer, another bloody thing is it'll have Windows 7 on it, it's got that on this laptop and I hate it, I like the old set up where you can change the start menu up like the old Windows systems have it, changed it to that on my busted Vista laptop, but they don't have that option on Windows 7, swines grrrrrr

 

[Systreg]

@ Malcolm,

If the HD would go in my kids laptop, all I would have done is started his laptop, gone online and sent myself an email containing the files I wanted, wouldn't have been any need for the techy stuff with copying files to floppy disk then No floppy disk drive on the laptop anyway, I wasn't aware that laptops had those, thought it was the cd trays only on them.

 

[mbignell]

USB floppy drive i still use floppy's though mainly on my old computers, shame they stopped using them, showing my age now

Malc

@ Malcolm,

If the HD would go in my kids laptop, all I would have done is started his laptop, gone online and sent myself an email containing the files I wanted, wouldn't have been any need for the techy stuff with copying files to floppy disk then No floppy disk drive on the laptop anyway, I wasn't aware that laptops had those, thought it was the cd trays only on them.

 

[Ashton]

Close your eyes, clench your teeth, dig deep in wallet, get a Mac. Forever feel the joy

Quoted for truth.


Also mac's run windows better than most pc's do so you can always run back to that if the snow leopard scares you.

 

[Systreg]

Just back from PC World with my new laptop, I spent about 2 hoiurs wandering up and down the isles looking at all they had, got it down to 3 I liked the look of, a Sony Vaio with 6GB RAM, but it was white and had glittler embedded in the white plastic in front of the keyboard, so that put me off, that left me with a 23 inch all in one touch screen jobbie with freeview built in and all that with 4GB RAM and a 1 Terabyte HD.

But in the end, I went with a HP again and bought the HP Pavilion dv7-4020sa, this is it:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-dv7-4020sa-06474287-pdt.html

One thing I didn't notice before I bought it, only noticed when I was sitting outside waiting for a taxi and read on the box that it has a fingerprint reader, might not have got it had I noticed that in store, but it doesn't sya fingerpint reader on the PC Worl site in the tech details, but there's probably a way to disable that feature anyway, so no biggie, just dont like fingerprint readers as it something else that can malfunction, anyway, I'm happy with my purchase as long as it lasts longer than the broken HP laptop.

I'll take a couple of photos one I get it set up

 

[Darren]

Kev, should of gone for the Samsung R530, £200.00 off until wednesday.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-r530-04144112-pdt.html

I needed a cheap laptop so got one, seems ok to me.

I was also tempted on the Vaios but the glitter made it to girly for me.

Darern.

 

[Systreg]

I was also tempted on the Vaios but the glitter made it to girly for me.

If it wasn't for the glitter I probably would have got that one, why put bloody glitter on them, surely not just to make girls want them, stupid when they are losing possible sales becuase of adding it.

I meant to look on the Curry's site last night but completely forgot, as Currys is next door to PC Word, but couldnt bear the thought of spending 2 hours in there as well, I hate shops and crowded places as it is, looks like a good deal that Samsung laptop.

Whilst there I was looking at big flat screen tv's, I imagined they cost £x,xxx but really surprised to see a very big screen for around £500 ish, would have bought one a long time ago had I known that, was nearly tempted to buy a cheaper laptop and one of the cheaper widescreen tv's for about £350, which were pretty big for that price even, but will mean lugging that to Ireland when we move, so might as get one over there as we're giving all out stuff away on Freecycle before we go.

 

[Darren]

Yes i really liked the vaios but both had the gary glitter look.

Im off to Tenerife for a couple of months so needed something for when out there.

Im not normally a fan of laptops but didnt fancy shipping my desktop over.

Yes there some good deals this weekend on TV etc..

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/bank_holiday-1161-commercial.html

 

[mat]

I hope you lot have been using the PC World and Currys voucher codes, some have been £20 - £30 off etc.

 

[Systreg]

@ Mat, no, I didn't use any codes, bought in shop rather than online, I don't buy anything online, could have bought through my laptops store and earnt commission but not bothered, as need laptop straight away.

 

[doodlebug]

I can't believe that in all that spec they don't mention the battery life, looks a nice laptop you have, make sure to get it insured.

Isn't it funny how all us aff people don't like shopping online

 

[mat]

I go look at the items in the shops, then come home and buy it cheaper online

 

[Systreg]

come home and buy it cheaper online

Makes sense, but I just don't like buying anything online at all, only ever bought something online once before which was a bike tyre and some innertubes if I remember correctly, and only then because they didn't have what I wanted in my local bike shop at the time.

 

[accelerator]

Isn't it funny how all us aff people don't like shopping online

I buy online whenever possible ... I think we should be supporting the channel.

Rgds