Member Avatar for alejandros

Glad to join the group. Hope I can get some help. I have had this compacq for several years now. Working fine til I left it on , went to do something, came back and the only sign of life were the power and battery lights. Tried to power the computer by holding the button for a minute or more (suggezted in another forum somewere), Nothing happened. Removed the battery and tried again, nothing happened. Inserted the battery. Now no battery light. The only thing I can recall happening before this was perhaps the machine starting to boot up slower than usual.
I know the computer is old but I need to access it at least one more time so I can retrieve files which I need> After that I guess I'll have to buy a new one. So if I can get suggestions on how to try to start it by doing something inside the machine I'm game. Please no technical terms. I can find how things work an follow directions very well but technical terms is not my thing. (logical geek??).
Anyway the more answers I get the more ways I get to try .

Thank you in advance.

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Dani AI

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Good follow-up to and — since the drive is now in a USB case and visible on your Dell, the next step is locating the personal files rather than re-doing hardware work.

First checks (quick and safe)

  • Open Windows Explorer and look at the external drive root for Documents and Settings (Windows XP) or Users (Vista/7). Your personal folders are usually under Documents and Settings\<yourname>\My Documents or Users\<yourname>\Documents.
  • If those folders are not obvious, use Explorer's search on that drive for common file types you recognize: *.doc, *.docx, *.xls, *.jpg, *.pst. That will show any personal files even if folder names look unfamiliar.

If you cannot see expected folders

  • Turn on hidden files: in Explorer go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View and select “Show hidden files and folders” (and temporarily uncheck “Hide protected operating system files” only if needed).
  • Look in all partitions: open Computer Management -> Disk Management to confirm the enclosure gave the drive a letter and to see if the drive has multiple partitions (some recovery partitions hide your files).

If files look wrong or are missing

  • Do not run repair tools yet. First copy any readable personal files to another safe drive (an external USB or your desktop).
  • If files appear as *.chk, have odd names, or you get “Access Denied,” stop and consider recovery software (Recuva, TestDisk/PhotoRec, commercial tools) or a local data-recovery shop. Also note: if the original system used Windows file encryption (EFS), files will not open without the original account’s certificate.

Where email and special data live

  • Outlook .pst files are commonly in Documents and Settings\<name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook (XP) or AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook.
  • Outlook Express uses .dbx files under Application Data\Identities.

Summary
Show hidden files, search for familiar extensions, copy anything you can immediately read, and avoid running disk repair until you have a backup copy. If the drive’s layout looks non‑Windows (folders like lost+found) it may be a Linux partition and will need different tools.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for caperjack

the hard drive can be removed and hooked to another computer and filrs retrieved ,to do this you need a usb device of sorts ,like a usb external hard drive case for a laptop size hard drive .or take out the hardrive and take it to good local computer shop and they will retrieve files for a small fee .

Member Avatar for sittas87

the hard drive can be removed and hooked to another computer and filrs retrieved ,to do this you need a usb device of sorts ,like a usb external hard drive case for a laptop size hard drive .or take out the hardrive and take it to good local computer shop and they will retrieve files for a small fee .

Hi and welcome

This post actually says it all. If you can remove the hard drive, then youll be able to get all data from it and store on another machine or even better just use it as an external [hard drive connected to USB] hard drive

Member Avatar for caperjack

Hi and welcome

This post actually says it all. If you can remove the hard drive, then youll be able to get all data from it and store on another machine or even better just use it as an external [hard drive connected to USB] hard drive

thanks for proof reading my post .lol

Member Avatar for alejandros

Thanks for your suggestion. Now, a little explanation before I commit to extracting the hard drive. Does the hard drive comes out with a usb port included or do I have to wire one to the hard drive? (I told you, I need directions from you guys) Do I need to get just the usb cables and connect the hard drive to my Dell computer or do I need some other hardware piece in order to make it work?
Thanks in advance

Member Avatar for caperjack

hello. you need an item like this one .

or this one ,see video .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fRedWbvJz4

Member Avatar for alejandros

Hi Caperjack:
well, I followed your advise and went and bought a harddrive case for the 2 1/2 hard drive. So let's consider that problem solved. Now,... I open the hard drive connecting it to my pc but what I see is a large number of folder and files that have no meaning to me. Do I have to restore my drive? Did I loose all my files? I'am at a loss here, Please help!!

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