i think my computor hard drive is buggered, can i retrieve the data?

[imaynotbeperfectbutimokmummy]

My computor just will not boot up. I switch it on nd the initial screen comes up, with prompts at the bottom for the boot menu, set up and system recovery. Then the screen says no signal, i htink it usually does this. But then it just goes back to square one. I have tried to raise the boot menu, i either can't or the page freezes.

I "think" i have backed up most of the business files, but i have shed loads of pictures of DD on there and i will be heartbroken if i can't retrieve them.

I guess it will be a trip to pc world or the local computor shop, but a - is it worth it, and b= will i be able to retreive my files - please tell me i can

Don't go to pc world. They will try to charge you £99 to get back your photos.

Definitely try your local techie shop as they will do the same for a fraction of the cost.

(I did get my photos back btw so fingers crossed for you)

yes it can be done - but ditto what shona says, find a local geek computer shop not PCW

do you think they will be able to get the computor up and running? or is it dead do you think?

thanks for replies

depends what's happened to it tbh. did you notice if it was short of memory or anything? (have just replaced memory in my laptop, cost me 30 quid and now have 4 times the speed)
if the hard drive has a big problem, then possibly it's buggered. Ask a local geek. I am married to one, he comes in useful for these things

this happened t my pc twice over the courseof two yrs. virus prob, mainly cos i have a pirate copy of windows xp, adn couldn't protect properly.

It's always cost me £60 to get fixed. Am having kind of similar now, ut will be investing in a new tower soon as i can afford.

Try local pc fixers first for definate.

You should be able to get to the BIOS Setup screen even without a working drive. If you can't it would seem that something else is wrong (and perhaps the hard drive is fine)

That's good news for your pictures, but could be good or bad for the computer. It could need the RAM replaced for example which would be cheap and easy. The hard part is sorting out which kind you need so you probably still need to take it in the local shop.

Or perhaps the Power Supply Unit(PSU) is faulty. That's cheap too though again you'd probably want the shop to put it in unless you've done one or seen one done before.

went and asked the local geek computor shop and they said it would be £35 to look at then any work on top, that they MIGHT be able to do a data retrieval depending on the extent of the damage. That is the main thing i am worried about to be honest as i have borrowed my DDs lap top for the time being. We are skint so hopefully tis easily fixable else we might have to wait a while. Grrrrrr - kicks myself up the arse for being less than diligent with my back ups

possibly light at the end of tunnel? glad you found a geek and that sounds a very reasonable price. Fingers crossed for you

You'll never guess what? Its only bloody working again!!

I think our portabl hard drive which was plugged into the computor is buggered. I thought the computor buggered the port HD, as i tried to plug it into the laptop and it was dead. Seems it could be the other way round. Thats all i can think of, the HD isn't plugged into the computor now and it works! Be a bit of a coincidence for it just to start working again surely? But hey, gift horse and all that - phew, that means i dont have to re do the tax return from scratch and all my precious photos are safe.

Needless to say we will be buying a new usb stick thing first thing

phew - that's good news. lots of backing stuff up this weekend then....