PC just blew up!! Anyway I can get my stuff off it??

Forums › Microsoft Windows › PC just blew up!! Anyway I can get my stuff off it??

TechnologyHalfVirgin

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Master Geek

#69519 9-Oct-2010 22:54

Everytime I went to plug it in and turn it on, the fuse in my room blew out. I am wondering if it the power source or something and not the bloody hard drive as I did not back up!! I will be buying a external to backup onto from now on. But I would love to know if my data is retrievable??

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#390017 9-Oct-2010 23:19

depends on what else the power supply took out with it.

is it a desktop or laptop?

Richard rich.ms

TechnologyHalfVirgin

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Master Geek

#390018 9-Oct-2010 23:21

desktop will taking it to like dragon pc be a good idea??

gehenna

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#390019 9-Oct-2010 23:27

take the hard drive out and stick it in an external enclosure, or a hard drive dock. then you can read the contents and back up anything you need to keep. put it back in the computer then bring it to whoever your local repairer is for a quote.

TechnologyHalfVirgin

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Master Geek

#390022 9-Oct-2010 23:31

how would I do that??

richms

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#390024 9-Oct-2010 23:44

If you have to ask how, you cant do it.

If the data is important to you, it would have been backed up. If you have just realized that it is important. Pay someone who knows what they are doing to see if the drive still has power. If you are lucky your blowen up power supply had some output protection on it so there was no spike.

If you are less lucky, only the protection diodes on the harddrive have died, so by removing them the drive will operate.

If you are less lucky than that, then the controller is fried, so you are up for a board swap. there are many backyard data recovery places that will do that for you.

Less lucky again, the heads are toast, thats clean room and specilist equipment time.

Doubtful there is any damage to data on the platters themselves, so you should be fine getting it back, its just a case of how many 1000 it costs depending on how much stuff is toasted.

90% of the time you can spend 100-120 on a new PSU and be back running, but if the origional PSU was a $20 piece of crap that came in a $40 case, then there is no regulation or output protection so spikes are very common.

Richard rich.ms

tdgeek

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#390025 9-Oct-2010 23:56

I agree, highly likely to be the power supply. Probably.......all else is fine in the PC. May be the motherboard shorted and failed. Unlikely that the HDD is damaged.

Re the hard drive, remove it or get a friend to remove it, when your at his/her place attach it to his/her PC , backup your data

TechnologyHalfVirgin

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Master Geek

#390102 10-Oct-2010 10:48

Thank you for your help I will take it too someone who knows more.

Lenovo

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chaosrescue

32 posts

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#390112 10-Oct-2010 11:45

You dont have to take it to anybody, that sound week. you are more than capable of doing this, the mind is a powerful tool, if you think you cant then you wont, but if you have faith in your self anything is possible, Google and you tube are your best friends and alot of coffee.

tdgeek

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#390262 10-Oct-2010 20:58

Exactly. Take it to a mates and do some learning at the same time

TechnologyHalfVirgin

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Master Geek

#390276 10-Oct-2010 21:49

1st of all I am a girl!
2nd of all no need to get mean about it, I came on here to ask for advice and help not to be made a fool off
3rd of all it was a power surge so not my fault, only reason PC was unplugged was because I had my older one plugged in taking stuff off it.

urban

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Ultimate Geek

#390359 11-Oct-2010 10:17

There are some girls at my work who know more about computers than I do :)

Use your girly power on some techgeek to help ya. Never too old to learn new things!

gehenna

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#390372 11-Oct-2010 10:30

TechnologyHalfVirgin: 1st of all I am a girl!
2nd of all no need to get mean about it, I came on here to ask for advice and help not to be made a fool off
3rd of all it was a power surge so not my fault, only reason PC was unplugged was because I had my older one plugged in taking stuff off it.

I don't think anyone is trying to make a fool of you, on the contrary I think they are trying to encourage you to look into the problem yourself and see if you can learn more about your computer in doing so. If you're not confident in doing that then perhaps see if you can spend some time with the technician who you take the computer to for repair and get him to show you what s/he does.

I also don't think being a girl has anything to do with it.

robjg63

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#390398 11-Oct-2010 11:21

I didnt see anyone say anything sexist (it wasnt obvious you are a girl) and I think you may have mistaken blunt encouragement as being mean - I dont that that was the intention....

There are 2 possibilities here:
1) Take it somewhere - If you have a friendly local PC store that you trust then do that. It does sound likely that the Power supply has blown up. If you are lucky than just that has gone and replacing it will bring your PC back to life. Though its possible that the PSU blowing up could have cooked the motherboard and maybe hard drive - hopefully not Hard drive though.
Replacing a Power supply is not too hard - you need the correct replacement of course. There is probably an advantage taking it somewhere as they will have the parts - and if its more than just the power supply you may have to think if its worth repairing or just rescuing your files.

2) Take the hard drive out and buy a USB hard drive enclosure. Take the hard drive out of the PC and pop it in the USB hard drive enclosure. Hook it up to a working PC - you should be able to see all your files and rescue your files.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

chaosrescue

32 posts

Geek

#390570 11-Oct-2010 17:48

My Humble Apologies, i was only trying to encourage you to broaden you knowledge, and to have confidence that you or anybody is more than capable of achieving great things if they believe, in there mind. you would kick yourself on how easy things are if you have a little understanding. it becomes an adventure.

Where there is a will, There is a way

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

#391046 12-Oct-2010 17:46

Without wanting to cause offense (an opening line probably guaranteed to cause offense) I'm a little curious as to how someone can be half a virgin.

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