Dang, I had this idea for my blog this morning, but it would need a couple of pictures to complement the story. Now, I know that I scanned those pictures. I even remember sending them via email to a relative. So, all I needed to do is look on my computer and use them. Right? Wrong!! I went all through the C-drive and the D-drive. Spent a lot of time doing that this morning and could not find it.
Then I remembered that in the past I used my old computer for scanning and email up until it wouldn’t boot up anymore. Had a computer technician come out to service it. He got it up and working and the next time I turned it back on, it would not boot up. That was money down the drain. Sure wish I could get it up and running long enough to get my pictures off it and on the external back up drive.
I have two hard-drives on all my computers, except the lap-top. On the one I am trying to get to boot up, the main hard drive is a SCSI drive and the other is a plain IHD hard drive. I just use the second one for storage and the SCSI for programs.
I go into my BIOS and make sure the SCSI is listed, save the changes, and for some reason it will not boot up and some times it seems to revert back to the wrong SCSI selection. Then the boot up says that there are no SCSI drives attached. No matter what I do with the BIOS set-up, it just comes back with this message: “PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT”. Ok, I am tired of this vicious cycle.
I give up for now. . .
I am wondering, can I take the second hard drive out of this computer and stick it in a different one? Would it work or would it mess up the other one? I am so very ignorant about all this stuff.
BY all means stick that HDD in another computer,then into the BIOS and tell it to look for it.. And Bob's your uncle , OR get you a cheap USB drive HDD enclosure and stick it in there, then you can read it on any computer.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried downloading and burning a copy of one of the many free live Linux operating systems. Then boot from the CD.They will read windows file systems and transfer them to other media.
ReplyDeleteLike Ben said. I'm using one of those now as a backup drive.
Another thing I recommend and use myself is a product called "Spinrite". Google it. It's a hard drive data recovery and maintenance program. It ain't cheap but it has saved my butt on several occasion. I now run it every now and then as maintenance. It doesn't care if the operating system will boot or not it brings it's own (dos) and works from that. I have no affiliation with and receive no remuneration from the inventor for recommending this product.
Thanks for the info, I have sent both of you emails.
ReplyDeleteLife gets complicated doesn't it DD. I hope you get it sorted...
ReplyDeleteYeah, what Old Fool said. Boot with a Linux CD (damn small linux is a, well, small one...) and it should read the second drive. Or, put it into any other computer you have, especially if you have the power and IDE connections extra and you don't have to do anything else special. Then, get rid of the SCSI primary drive. The discussion on why the heck you have a SCSI primary drive in a home computer needs more beer than I currently have onsite. If you get an enclosure you can indeed use it as a second drive on any computer with a USB port. Depends on the size of the drive and your need of the extra portable drive if that is worth it. I would probably just put it into another computer, copy off the stuff, and use it as a spare. No extra money needed.
ReplyDeleteHey FT, It isn't too complicated until I think something is hidden on it. I have others to use.
ReplyDeleteShadowmoss, I have always had my "working" computers built. I have worked from home for a lot of years and need a better machine than an off the shelf home computer. I run high end solid modeling engineering software. At the time I had the older computer built, SCSI was the fastest and best I could get. I use the C drive for programs and the D drive for files. Also have external drives for back-ups. Has always worked well that way. Better stock up on beer :-)