Member Avatar for matilda21

Hi everyone I was unable to turn off my pc a few months ago and had to turn off power supply to shut it down, I was then unable to reboot so gave up on it and brought a new one. I am now wanting to get photos etc out of old pc so gave it another go, to my suprise it rebooted but keeps freezing on boot up, it gets as far as

testing memory: 1048576k ok

I am also unable to use the DEL or f9 options
I have also tried using f8 but to no avail.

Any help would be great.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by matilda21

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A practical, low‑risk plan to recover photos without guessing at the underlying cause. pointed toward accessing the old drive from another machine; that is the most direct route. Because said this feels out of her comfort zone, below are safe options and clear steps that a non‑technical person or a helpful friend/repair shop can follow.

If comfortable or willing to ask a friend/shop to do the physical work:

  1. Identify the drive interface (SATA is a slim L connector; older PATA/IDE uses a wide ribbon).
  2. Obtain a USB‑to‑SATA/PATA adapter or an external enclosure that matches the drive. Note: 3.5" desktop drives need a separate power brick; 2.5" laptop drives are often USB‑powered.
  3. With everything powered off, connect the drive to the adapter, plug the adapter into a working PC, then power up. The drive should appear in File Explorer (Windows), Finder/Disk Utility (macOS) or your file manager (Linux). Copy photos to another drive immediately.
  4. If the OS asks to initialize or format the disk, do not agree — that will destroy data.

If you prefer not to remove the drive:
Create a bootable Linux live USB on a second computer, boot the old PC from it, attach an external USB drive, and copy files from the internal disk. This avoids installing anything and is non‑destructive.

When to stop and seek pros: if the drive is not detected, makes unusual noises, or the data is critical. Professional recovery services exist for mechanical failures and are safer than repeated DIY attempts.

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Member Avatar for sparkax

You may have to remove the Hard Drive from your old pc and use it as a slave in your new pc (if possible).
You may then be able to retrieve your files.

Member Avatar for matilda21

Thanks for your suggestion sparkax but that is way out of my league, think I would only make a mess of that if i tried. Lol...

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