[Neema]

.

[Neema]

bump for help

[KaBoom]

Buy one of these or similar product. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156102
Take out the hard drive from the laptop.
Attach the HDD to the adapter. Then plug it into your computer. Access the drive as a USB drive then copy whatever you need to backup from the laptop HDD to your computer.
Once, the backup is done. Put the HDD back into the laptop and restore it from the restore disc or read the instruction on how to restore to Manufacture Default.

This only work if the HDD is still good.

[Neema]

Originally Posted by KaBoom

Buy one of these or similar product. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156102
Take out the hard drive from the laptop.
Attach the HDD to the adapter. Then plug it into your computer. Access the drive as a USB drive then copy whatever you need to backup from the laptop HDD to your computer.
Once, the backup is done. Put the HDD back into the laptop and restore it from the restore disc or read the instruction on how to restore to Manufacture Default.

This only work if the HDD is still good.

So we would have to psychically remove the HD? Is this something that can be done by a computer shop?

[Robertbog]

Originally Posted by Boost_Nation

So we would have to psychically remove the HD? Is this something that can be done by a computer shop?

Somebody needs to get some handy man skills

[Neema]

Originally Posted by Robertbog

Somebody needs to get some handy man skills

word haha, I know

[Robertbog]

Originally Posted by Boost_Nation

word haha, I know

If you can figure out how to take out the battery the HDD is gonna come out like that or like how you could get in the ram. Most you would need is a phillips head

[McLuVan]

since when did NEEMA have ONE girl friend

[McLuVan]

jk
hmmm
dude you should really look into a macbook(air, regular, pro)
it's a good investment

[BMWE90]

Originally Posted by Boost_Nation

So we would have to psychically remove the HD? Is this something that can be done by a computer shop?

i dont think a computer shop can psychically remove the laptop.
Sorry that had to come out.

BUt yeah, it's pretty easy to remove it from the laptop. There should be a little plastic cover on the bottom. You use a screw driver to remove the screw, lift up that plastic and just disconnect and take out the HDD.

[Year's_End]

Originally Posted by KaBoom

Buy one of these or similar product. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156102
Take out the hard drive from the laptop.
Attach the HDD to the adapter. Then plug it into your computer. Access the drive as a USB drive then copy whatever you need to backup from the laptop HDD to your computer.
Once, the backup is done. Put the HDD back into the laptop and restore it from the restore disc or read the instruction on how to restore to Manufacture Default.

This only work if the HDD is still good.

+1 This is what I'd do.

Also +1 to the Macbook suggestion. I was never really a fan of Mac's previously, but they're incredibly enticing nowadays, and I'm positive I'll be gunning for a Macbook Pro as my next laptop.

[nabutes]

Are you able to connect an external monitor to the laptop?? That way you could at least connect an external HD to the laptop and copy the 'media'.

my $.02

[sinnet112]

External monitor would work, if it's not the video card that's messed up. if so, it won't be able to power another display either.

+1 on the product from newegg. It's called a sled and it makes reading HDs a breeze. Haven't toyed with HPs in a long time, as I use a Mac now, but there should be two covers on the bottom of the laptop, one screw would undo the battery and the other would undo the HD. Just slide/pop the HD out and connect it to the sled. Connect the USB end to another computer and it should come up as an ejectable drive, where you can access it as if it were an external HD.

[flyer333]

it might just be a video card problem so you can hook it up to another monitor
... i am just guessing... not a computer tech. here lol

[1WickedE90]

Originally Posted by Boost_Nation

So my g/f's HP pavilion laptop has been acting up for the past 4 weeks or so. She says that every time she turns it on, the screen stays black, and she'll have to turn it on and off many many times before it eventually works.

However, this time. . . it's remaining off and she's very upset because she's afraid that she's lost all her music and pictures. I asked her to find out where she bought it from to see if there was any sort of warranty, and also to contact HP and see if there is a warranty.

The most important thing to her is all of her media. If worse comes to worse, is there a way to some how upload her hard drive onto another hard drive, or what? Basically, I need to know how a situation like this can be fixed and whether a computer shop could do something or not. As always, I really appreciate the help guys, so thank you in advance.

From the symptoms your gf is describing, it looks like the problem is the connector from the LCD screen to the laptop's system board (aka "motherboard"). On some laptops, these are things to go bad 1st, along with the DC-to-DC inverter (usually near where you would plug in the power adaptor).

A quick visual check would be to see if the power & hard drive LEDs are illuminated when you power on the laptop (if the hard drive light is intermittently flashing during the boot process, the data should be fine). Most likely, her data on the hard drive is safe. The hard drive can be pulled, put in an external enclosure and the data retrieved from another PC. This is my preferred method. Another one would be to hookup an external monitor to the laptop (her Pavillion should have a VGA port) and copy the data off that way.

Depending on what she has on her laptop, it's her call to get it fixed by a computer shop. I've seen instances where the tech working on the laptop "helps" themselves to the data on the laptop before giving it back to the customer. Good luck.

[spacedogg]

If you're not really good with computers, best to take it to a computer shop and get the pros to do it.

If you're going to do it yourself, I would recommend getting a 2.5" notebook harddrive to 3.5" desktop harddrive adapter. Then you can hook it up to a desktop computer and copy all the files. If you just get a USB external drive enclosure (as suggested earlier) then you may only see/have access to one partition as Windows can only support read/write access to the primary partition over USB. Plus USB is SLOW.

If you don't understand any of that...take it to a computer expert. Seriously...shouldn't play around/risk someone else's data.

[zzinco79]

I would contact HP and ask them if they can back up the memory and fix the computer. I've done it before. So, it is very possible story.

if they say NO, then you have to take out the HDD and back it up by yourself.

GL

[zzinco79]

BTW, HP sucks.

buy Macbook lol

[1WickedE90]

Originally Posted by spacedogg

If you're going to do it yourself, I would recommend getting a 2.5" notebook harddrive to 3.5" desktop harddrive adapter. Then you can hook it up to a desktop computer and copy all the files. If you just get a USB external drive enclosure (as suggested earlier) then you may only see/have access to one partition as Windows can only support read/write access to the primary partition over USB. Plus USB is SLOW.

Depending on the desktop computer, you may have to set the laptop hard drive as a "slave" drive in order for the desktop to see it. The OP would need to lookup the laptop hard drive's model number on the 'net to find out that info. He'd also need to know whether the laptop hard drive is IDE or SATA.

USB 1.0 is slow (11mbs) but if the laptop has USB 2.0 ports (480mbs), the transfer speed would be fast. Windows (on the host computer) would be able to see all the laptop partitions and would need to only "read" the laptop hard drive to copy the data over. Also, would need to know if the partitions were FAT/FAT32/NTFS - if NTFS, is the partition encrypted or protected somehow?

[spacedogg]

Originally Posted by 1WickedE90

Depending on the desktop computer, you may have to set the laptop hard drive as a "slave" drive in order for the desktop to see it. The OP would need to lookup the laptop hard drive's model number on the 'net to find out that info. He'd also need to know whether the laptop hard drive is IDE or SATA.

USB 1.0 is slow (11mbs) but if the laptop has USB 2.0 ports (480mbs), the transfer speed would be fast. Windows (on the host computer) would be able to see all the laptop partitions and would need to only "read" the laptop hard drive to copy the data over. Also, would need to know if the partitions were FAT/FAT32/NTFS - if NTFS, is the partition encrypted or protected somehow?

I speak from personal experience. Windows (including Vista) considers external drives connected via USB as removable drives. Windows (for some dumb reason) does not support multiple partitions on removable drives. It will only read/write to the first partition.

There is apparently a registry hack to get around this...but I haven't figured that out yet. So unless I'm totally missing out on something (that I would love to find out because my search on ol' Google turned up with nothing) he won't be able to just connect his laptop harddrive via USB and have full access to all partitions on the drive. He would in Linux of course...but not in Windows...unless he hacks the registry. That's why I suggested he directly connect the drive to his computer instead of using USB.

[TurboFan]

Originally Posted by Boost_Nation

So we would have to psychically remove the HD? Is this something that can be done by a computer shop?

The proposed solution is exactly what I would have said. It's not hard to open the laptop and extract the hard drive. There is probably a bay on the bottom of the laptop where you can get the HDD out. Can you post a good pic of the bottom of the laptop?

[NYBMW335]

This can be a couple of things.

1. If the laptop is not giving any signs of life, then it can be the motherboard.

2. If you dropped the laptop then it can be the memory bank that got loose, add some pressure on your memory and try if it turns on. I had this happen on my vaio and my HP. If it still doesn't turn on, then just remove the HD, it should be 2 little screws on the bottom of your computer, and then another 2 screws holding the HD to the motherboard.

After you HD is out, just plug it in to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156102 like another member here suggested. Give all these a try. And let us know the outcome.

thanx
Ricardo