How Do I Recover Files From A Dead Computer?

yes basically my computer stopped working and i need to retrieve my files especially pictures, school projects

thank you

check this out,
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-2862.0.html

It's very easy. But if you can't do it give it to a professional to do it 4 u. Follow these steps.

1. Remove the hard disk drive from the bad system.
2. Take it to another system that is perfectly working.
3. Change the settings of the HDD from the bad system to that of a slave.
4. Slaving it means it will be recognised as a 2nd hard disk by that working system while
the main hard disk will be the master hard disk drive.
5. Go to setup and check if the system can see and recognise the 2nd HDD as a slave.
6. If it can be seen and recognised as a slave drive then,save the settings.
7. Allow the system to boot to desktop, then check by opening mycomputer you will see
the slave drive there; either as drive D or E depending on what the master drive is.
8. If you know the name(s) of the file(s) you are looking for use the names to search, then
copy them out and save in the master HDD or to a flash drive if you have one.

Cheers!!

thank you @ gentleone, but im in far away congo 

Thanks ishmael

Im not really an expert on comps, i just know the basic but i can also follow good instructions

3. Change the settings of the HDD from the bad system to that of a slave.

how do i do this?

Thanks man

Let me check if i can see any pix of a hard drive settings, i,ll scan and send it to u.

thanx man
i will be expecting

canu tell me the scale of risk involved in this process, as much as i want to do it myself im thinking i can damage the other computer altogether

In that case you better look for an expert to do it for u. Its a bit technical and i dont want you to damage the other system.If u were in nigeria it would have been easy to communicate with u on fone and tell u exactly what to do. But its an easy task 4 those that know little about computer hardware. All i will advice you to do is to get a computer hardware specialist over there and tell him the problem; tell the person to make the old hard disk a slave to the system that is working by changing or making the settings of the harddisk a slave and connecting it to the system using IDE cable. Stay blessed.

LoverBwoy,

Hope the hard disk isn't dead as well.  If it isn't, then you can follow the steps listed by ishmael.  But to do that, you must have another system beside you.

Butressing ishmael's steps:

1. Hope you know what hard disk is?  And I hope you can remove/fix it as well.

2. Change the settings of the HDD from the bad system to that of a slave.

Do you know what a jumper is?  That is what you'll use to change from master to slave.  As ishmael said, when you slave an hard disk, it becomes the Primary or Seconday slave (depending on which IDE port you connect it to).  Your system then recognises it as the 2nd hard disk, which then makes it possible for you to transfer your files into the first hard disk. 

But I'll suggest you just get another system (without any hard disk), and fix your original hard disk (if it's working) into it, in order to save you the stress of setting the jumper to make one master or slave, and so on.  You must also be familiar with the CMOS settings to carry all these out, effectively.

(Sorry, I really cant go into details right now, Im quite busy here. . maybe later).

Holla back!

Thebadguy, thanx for chipping in. But i think the best thing for the guy to do is to get an expert to do it for him. I initially thot he had little knowledge on computer hardware. Cheers!!

im glad there are some computer people out here! Question, i have a lap top and the hard drive blew. i had a whole lot of pictures and information for school on there and i would really love to retrieve them. However we took it to the shop and the gy put another harddrive in the the lap top. i have the old hard drive, is there still a way to retrieve information out of it. If so how?? i really need your help!

It blew? Well, I guess there's little or nothing you can do to it. The guy did what most computer engineers would do. But then, there's something in the hard disk that is usually repaired/replaced/welded (not quite sure) when such happens. We have experts here at Ikeja (computer village) who can handle such cases very well.

where is that located? i dont live in Nigeria

Computer village is at Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.

BTW, see this: http://www.datarecoverycompanies.com/harddrives.html

@thebadguy

thanx a million i think this will answer alot of my questions!

You're welcome.

i had the same problem

tell me how i can get it repaired in computer village?

only honest people please not those who'll just lead me on and then say it can't be done

would appreciate it

Call Eri on 2348023077759. He works in Otigba, and if he can't help you, forget the drive.

Hi guys, To get your infomation back from the dead computer is quite easy. if u cant get the method prescribed by others, just plug in the dead hard disk into the secondary IDE connector on the new computer's motherboard and it will definitely see the harddisk of the dead computer and you can get ur information from there. The working computer's hardisk will be drive C while the dead computer's hard disk will now read drive D. thanks

you are saying the samething we said, except that you did not talk about setting the jumpers of the bad hard disk to slave. The system cannot recognise another HDD drive if its settings is the same as the main HDD of that system. Take note!!

Right man! I think the best thing is for the guy to have an expert fix it for him.

please, do any one know hoe to recover files and operate through dos enviroment.

Holla at your all , i think u guys should look at things technically, what if the hard disk itself is faulty from the non-working computer, this means even in the working pc it wouldnt read the files needed to be copied, he wrote that the pc is dead, might be hard disk fault, i think the best solution is get a qualified tech to look into things, Peace Out,

famooski:

i think u guys should look at things technically,

Bros, how else are we looking at things here? I think you should be the one to look at things properly before posting. Or didn't you read this part of my post:

thebadguy:

Hope the hard disk isn't dead as well. If it isn't, then you can follow the steps listed by ishmael.

??

First of, trying freezing the hard drive. take care not to let ice crystals form on it (, or inside it). it usually has a reduced read speed and it eventually stops working again, but freezing the drive gives you plenty of time to get the data off, or even boot from it.

If you must get your data/files from the dead hard drive back at all cost, there is a chance. It wont be easy if you gon do it yourself but it will work and should be the last option if everything else fails.

Here it goes:

Get another hard drive of the same make and size.
Crank both hard drives open.
Transfer the guts of the dead hard drive to the new one (this is assuming the problem is the spindle motor and not the magnetic platter).
Attach it to a system and boot the system using knoppix or any live cd and copy your data.

Now, this should be done in a clean environment and you can practice with other drives you don't need to get the fell of it. I have done this before for a friend. He never believed in back-up and lost all his family picture, documents and a whole bunch of other stuff. He was willing to pay me and take the risk (he aint got a choice BTW). I was able to recover 98% of his data.

Note: i will take no responsibity if you screw your hard drive up. Do this at your own risk.

Good luck.

Or Like, buy an empty case and convert it to a portable hard drive. you know those 3.5" case that comes with USB at the end of it. Like, You put your HDD in it and plug into another computer through its USB

The EASIEST way to recover files from a PC that wont boot is to use a Bootable CD.
Once you have one (you can get one at www.discmaster.info) just put it in your CD ROM and start your PC. The PC will boot into a windows-like environment from the CD, then you can run file recovery software (that is included in the CD!)
You can save the recovered files to a flash/pen drive (just put it in before the PC starts) or a network drive or even burn it to CD using the software that is included (if you have a CD-R Drive).
You can also do things like scan for viruses, check and fix the hard drive, change passwords, etc - and you may be able to fix the PC!
To get a Bootable PC Repair CD or Bootable BART Disk go to: http://www.discmaster.info/UK/tools.htm or to: http://www.diskmaster.info/USA/tools.htm
Hope this helps!

If you need to recover your lost files contact me at computer Village or call my number 08082350001

I have read thru your posts on this issue and I think we do not need to drag it back & forth. On this particular section, we have a thread created for this computer wahala but no body wants to use it. Rather, you all created a new thread and even elongated it. Please, the creator of this new thread should go to the dedicated thread under this same computer section thread and relay your wahala there and I promise you that you will be happy again. I also encourage the rest of to keep up the good work in helping our brother with his harddisk files wahala. Above all, Ishmael played a very sweet role in his advice here including others too. I am also suggesting (if the HDD is not as dead as the computer) that he should remove it freom the dead PC, change the jumper settings by removing one tiny fusing plastic that has a tiny metal in it that is called jumper and slot it in the next double pin slot at the vertical side-endof the HDD along the line that the power and data connectors are found. These double pin slots (one pin up & one pin down) are three pairs. If you read the inscriptions on the flat top of your HDD, you will see a small diagram illustrating how this pins are fused with this jumper. Focus on the one that will enable you to fuse it where you will have your HDD to become a SLAVE to another working HDD that is already in a working PC. Sometimes it is recognised as "S" or "SL". You can then connect the data and power cables to make it as aother HDD on this seperate working PC. This is when you start the new PC and see your files and do whatever you to do with it. Hope this will really add to what you have. Enjoy yourselves. _Philcool

May be you can try this data recovery software. if you are not sure, you can free download this free version to have a try.
http://local-easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

Hello all,

I recently had this experience where my laptop went dead and couldn't power on again, probably due to a crashed hard disk.

Pls does anyone know how much it will cost me in total to recover the files and get a new hard disk of about 150gb?

Your responses will be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hello,

It is possible, see this step by step guide: dead computer data recovery

The guide helped me before, easy to follow and works well for me. Hope that it helps you too.