Help retrieving pictures from dead laptop.

Hey guys, I have a family member who managed to somehow end up w/ a pretty much dead windows install. I'm not really sure how to fix it as it wont boot in to windows at all. It starts to boot then blue screens. She said before it started acting up she tried to do a system restore. I'm not really familiar w/ this sort of stuff but i was thinking that maybe the hard drive has become corrupted. However, her daughter just recently had a baby and she would like to not loose the large number of pictures she has taken of the baby. I fired up an ubuntu live CD and i can access all of the pictures. Does anyone have any ideas of anyway to get them off of the computer and somewhere easily accessible?

These are some of the options i have come up w/:

• Burn to CDs-I would need to find a distrobution that can load to ram off of a CD and DSL doesn't seem to function on this laptop. (no keyboard / mouse)
• Load to an image hosting site such as photobucket- The problem being that there is a ton of pictures and i would sit here forever trying to organize the photos in to photobucket
• FTP to my file space on the school servers

Anybody have any other ideas? Any tips that could perhaps make this flow a little faster.

Thanks for any advice.

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Originally Posted by luciusad2004

I fired up an ubuntu live CD and i can access all of the pictures. Does anyone have any ideas of anyway to get them off of the computer and somewhere easily accessible?

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Is there a USB port? Copy them to either a thumbdrive or an external hdd.

Pull the hard drive out. If its SATA, you're all set, just plug it in. If it's IDE, you will need a notebook IDE to desktop IDE board. You can just plug it into a working computer. There should be a door with a compartment on the bottom of the laptop that has the hard drive inside.

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Originally Posted by nevermind1534

Pull the hard drive out. If its SATA, you're all set, just plug it in. If it's IDE, you will need a notebook IDE to desktop IDE board. You can just plug it into a working computer. There should be a door with a compartment on the bottom of the laptop that has the hard drive inside.

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Great Idea, I didn't think about that. If it's easily accessible I will ask if i can take it home w/ me and hook it up to my computer.

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Originally Posted by xmastree

Is there a USB port? Copy them to either a thumbdrive or an external hdd.

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I thought about doing that i just don't have any flashdrives on hand. If she can wait though then i would be able to run home and get the pictures. I wasn't going to go this route because if she wants ALL of her pictures my flash drive isn't big enough, if she just wants the baby pictures i can probably hold them though.

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Originally Posted by luciusad2004

if she wants ALL of her pictures my flash drive isn't big enough, if she just wants the baby pictures i can probably hold them though.

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If you have another computer nearby, copy them a few at a time until they're all safe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nevermind1534

If it's IDE, you will need a notebook IDE to desktop IDE board. You can just plug it into a working computer.

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As a slave drive would be easiest

Yes, or you could also plug it in where you would normally have your optical drive, if you have more than one IDE channel.

I yanked the drive out and its sata. I just need to get a sata cable and i should be able to get it running on my Linux box. As i don't own sata, i would have to order a cable, so I might ask her how long she is willing to weight, and if she is cool w/ it, I can take her laptop home w/ me and order a cable. She has about five and a half GB of pictures. None of my flash drives are that big so i will probably burn a ton of CD's for her. Its things like this that make me realize how important an external HDD is lol. It's why all my pictures are backed up to my flash drives.

Are sata cables expensive?

Edit: just looked sata cables are so cheap they might as well be free.

You could temporary host them on your system while she fixes up her computer and then put them back onto her computer when she's fixed it.

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Originally Posted by crenn

You could temporary host them on your system while she fixes up her computer and then put them back onto her computer when she's fixed it.

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Yeah, that's what ill probably do, I have a spare hard drive i might hook up and throw them on to make sure i don't delete them. I tend to format a lot lol. I was gonna burn a bunch of CD's for her anyway though so i might just do that.

How bout a non-destructive reinstall of windows? I have done this several times and it has saved me as many times.
This is not my article. It is from the Information Week newsletter I get. I hope this is ok to post like this.
If not just let me know, I'll take it down and post a link instead.

(edit) I have decided to remove this post to prevent copyright infringement. I have a letter into the editor for permission to post this on TBCS. If granted I will post the entire article in the tutorial section. In the mean time here is a link to the original post.

Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option
http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=189400897

Omg thank you. I had no clue you could do that. I got bored last night so i just transfered all of her pictures over to my laptop via my 1GB thumb drive so they are all safe. Took me all night though. If she has her install DVDs I'll give the repair a try and see if i can get it back up and running. I was careful w/ my wording when speaking w/ her so that I'm only really onboard to save her pictures, but if I can get it running w/out her having to run to a computer shop, or w/out someone else she knows wiping the hold HDD i suppose that would be great. It gets frustrating sometimes lol, Everyone knows I'm a comp sci major but they don't know that all i learn in school is programming, not maintenance. I really don't know much about repair.

Thanks everyone

Quote:

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Originally Posted by luciusad2004

Omg thank you. I had no clue you could do that. I got bored last night so i just transfered all of her pictures over to my laptop via my 1GB thumb drive so they are all safe. Took me all night though. If she has her install DVDs I'll give the repair a try and see if i can get it back up and running. I was careful w/ my wording when speaking w/ her so that I'm only really onboard to save her pictures, but if I can get it running w/out her having to run to a computer shop, or w/out someone else she knows wiping the hold HDD i suppose that would be great. It gets frustrating sometimes lol, Everyone knows I'm a comp sci major but they don't know that all i learn in school is programming, not maintenance. I really don't know much about repair.

Thanks everyone

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Hey no prob! It's one of those many undocumented things that MS$ just "neglects" to mention!

glad you saved them :up: I was going to offer you one of the millions of SATA cables I have lying around :D if you still need/want one let me know, I'll send it to ya :up:

I think the CD burning will be the easiest.
Even though there is 5 1/2 gb.
All modern CD's hold 700MB so it shouldn't be too bad depending on the optical drive write speed.

That's a good find. +rep

serious lawls. My laptop crashed and i lost all of the pictures after staying up all night and transfering them. They are still on her hdd though so it looks like i have to purchase a sata cable after all. Anyway, i had a question:

If i have the product key for windows do i need the original install disk to install windows or can i use a buddies install disk and just put in her product key. The product key should be the one found on the little sticker on the bottom of her machine right? I ask because, she says that her ex has her install disks and i know she isn't going to talk to him just to get her hands on them and i can't afford to purchase windows for her (if XP can even be found still)

Thanks for any info guys.