Total Catastrophe - On Old Puter Now

[Classic Finn]

What a Catastrophical 1.5 days here. I guess when it rains it pours.

Computer crashes. Which is the main computer for all of The Wifes Business
Domestic and International.

No matter how we tried couldnt get it running again. I take it in to the repair shop and thought just maybe we could get it fixed.

I get a call in the afternoon, Hard Drive Damaged. Screen Insides about to go, showing only red color.

Granted it was purchased in 2004 and cost over 3000 Euro.
New Hard Drive alone 300 Euro plus Labor. And a new Card for the Screen about 800 Euro. Just inspection or diagnos problem was 100 Euro without the new parts and labor.

So the only thing that saved most was that we have an exterior Drive or Backup.

Majority was saved..

The only thing is that we dont know how to save the email also with photos out of the broken Labtop.

We were told to go and purchase an exterior box to place the hard drive in and with the USB we can transfer some of the info to another machine.

But no guarantee that it can..

My question is: Can the email be retreived ?

I am communicating with an old home pc so at least were not totally in the Dark. Also I have webmail that is the same as my normal email adress for those of you that have my email.

What a day to find also that my blood count is out of the normal, and I must now go to the Clinic for a special mask to inhale Asthma Medication thru a mask .. since I wont go to the hospital for 2 weeks..so Im an out patient now.. Id sooner go see a vet than the temp doctors at our local hospital.

But thats our happenings since last night till this evening ..

Any suggestions for a new Computer? The wife needs a new machine for her business..Weve had nothing but trouble with Fujitsu Siemens -
Amilo.

But still have some humor regardless..yea some.

If you see Im not online for awhile most likely were setting up a new computer or trying to get this old box working. At least I can sign on to the forum and get my email..just
have to see if we can get email out of the broken labtop..

Thank God we had a backup..but the email is questionable. This ol box of a pc is so slow and clumsy..

Regards to All
Classic Finn and Family

[toypusher]

Heiki,

What email program do you use??

[Classic Finn]

Hi Kerry

Its Outlook Express..

Main emails we have are ones with photos..both of us.

Heikki

[rainjer]

Is you email web based email? If it is something like hotmail.com you may be fine except you may not have your sent items.

[Classic Finn]

Is you email web based email? If it is something like hotmail.com you may be fine except you may not have your sent items.

Hi Rainjer

I dont know how to explain it better than this: Its the same provider, and same email and all except I can access it from anywhere in the world.
With the difference of a code.

Here I thought I could possibly get my email that I have received and are stored on our labtop via this webmail but I guess Im wrong.

If anyone sends me email it comes normally and its on our pc but the provider has a service where if my pc isnt working <i can catch all incoming
email from wherever. And I can reply as well.

Somthing like hotmail but same email adress.

Ours here is both not web based and webbased. Did I say that right..

Heikki

[toypusher]

Heiki,

Sorry for the delay. One more question. Can you get the machine up at all or maybe put the HD in another machine??

If you can not get to the drive with Windows OS, then you need to get the HD slaved to another machine. If you can get to the drive at all, you need to look in: C:\documents and settings\(Name of user of the email acount)or(might just be computer name)\local settings\Application data\identities\(maybe another folder with lots of numbers and letters)\Microsoft\Outlook Express. Just copy all of the files there.

You may also be able to just do a search for *.dbx and retreive all of those files.

For future reference: In Outlook Express, go to File- Export- messages and export them as a .pst file on a seperate drive or disk on a regular basis (maybe once or twice a week)

Another thing: Get a good backup program like Acronis TrueImage and keep a current backup copy of your whole dirve. If it dies, you can restore the copy to a new drive and be back up and running in no time at all.

[Classic Finn]

HI KERRY

That is what they meant to do as you say.. I need to go out and buy some kind of a box that has a USB and hook it up to our old pc and possibly get the
info out, however they said here it cant be guranteed.

This was Suvi,s Labtop . it just froze and then we couldnt do anything in Bios or Other wise.

I pressed the button to boot it and nothing. So thats that much for the labtop.

I didnt have a chance to go get it out from the shop but the wife will pick it up
in the morning and go get this so called box or whatever it is and we,ll slave it to another machine.

And I,ll touch base again.. Like i mentioned thank god we had back up and got majority, but our email together is still in that labtop. and non went to the back up.. as far as I can see.

Heikki

[toypusher]

If it is a laptop HD, then you can get a small case to put it in and hookup with the USB connection. Wish you were closer, I would just take it and see what I could get back for you. If the HD runs and you cannot get the data off it, there is some software that I have to recover damaged drives (as long as they still run).

I can't belive that a repair shop does not have the means to 'slave' the drive to a PC and get your data for you! Or at the least, have the external drive case that you need. I have all of that stuff and I am NOT even a repair shop!!

[asianflava]

I used a 3.5 to 2.5 IDE converter when I had to image my laptop's HD, it's only a couple bucks. Basically it allows you to plug your laptop's HD into your desktop. It allows full functionality at full speed.

You can do it with a USB enclosure but it takes a lot longer to do. When dealing with large HDs you want all the speed it can muster. I imaged a 100G HD and it still took a couple hours.

[Sonetpro]

You are not alone my freind. My MB went out 2 weeks ago.
I bought one of the external USB drive boxes and it worked like a charm. I just put the hard drive in the box, plugged in the USB and it saw it as a mass storage device. Just like a flash drive.
I bought a HP media Center and am very happy with it. I couldn't build one cheaper than I could buy one.
I even found out I like Vista. Lots of features. And the media center streaming to my home entertainment center is awesome.

[Classic Finn]

If it is a laptop HD, then you can get a small case to put it in and hookup with the USB connection. Wish you were closer, I would just take it and see what I could get back for you. If the HD runs and you cannot get the data off it, there is some software that I have to recover damaged drives (as long as they still run).

I can't belive that a repair shop does not have the means to 'slave' the drive to a PC and get your data for you! Or at the least, have the external drive case that you need. I have all of that stuff and I am NOT even a repair shop!!

Ohh they will do it... but the cost is high heaven.. We can get a new labtop for the price thye would charge to fix this dead one.
So sad.. we were both so upset. but ok its over..

The labtop wants to start up but gets stuck on the very front where it says
F2 for Bios and F12 and so on.. then it throws it over to where it has 3 choices to boot it .. and on the bottom of the page its states in 20 seconds
windows will try to open.. and thats where it gets stuck ... and windows tries to open it but just wont..

So I,ll get that box or cover and we,ll try it .. these boys will charge ridiculous prices to get the info out ...

Kerry I,ll send you the HD ... so ou can open it..

Heikki

[Classic Finn]

You are not alone my freind. My MB went out 2 weeks ago.
I bought one of the external USB drive boxes and it worked like a charm. I just put the hard drive in the box, plugged in the USB and it saw it as a mass storage device. Just like a flash drive.
I bought a HP media Center and am very happy with it. I couldn't build one cheaper than I could buy one.
I even found out I like Vista. Lots of features. And the media center streaming to my home entertainment center is awesome.

So Steve it also happened to you? It really feels bad .. to have this happen.. we took it very badly.. wife even more.

Suvi was asking if we find a new machine can they be purchased with LINUX
instead of Vista? Or does one have to install it after deleting Vista or is the guarantee then void if that is done on our own?

Heikki

[toypusher]

You are not alone my freind. My MB went out 2 weeks ago.
I bought one of the external USB drive boxes and it worked like a charm. I just put the hard drive in the box, plugged in the USB and it saw it as a mass storage device. Just like a flash drive.
I bought a HP media Center and am very happy with it. I couldn't build one cheaper than I could buy one.
I even found out I like Vista. Lots of features. And the media center streaming to my home entertainment center is awesome.

So Steve it also happened to you? It really feels bad .. to have this happen.. we took it very badly.. wife even more.

Suvi was asking if we find a new machine can they be purchased with LINUX
instead of Vista? Or does one have to install it after deleting Vista or is the guarantee then void if that is done on our own?

Heikki

Heiki,

Check around on the internet. Some companies are now offering Linux on new computers. I belive that Dell and Lenovo (used to be IBM) offer Linux machines. I have not checked, but I belive that they do. Also, If you want to install Linux on a new machine, make a full copy of the HD first (in case you want to go back). Then you can either make a 'dual-boot' machine (be able to boot to either linux or windows) or blow out the windows and do a fresh install of linux. I can highly recommend Ubuntu Linux. It is very easy to install and very easy to use, update, add software too, etc. It is the best version for an end user that I have ever seen. Hey, and it's free!!!

Like I said in an earlier post, get a copy of Acronis True Image and make a complete copy of the HD before you do anything else. It will let you burn the image to DVDs and most new laptops and desktops come with DVD burners now. Just make sure that you make a boot CD or DVD so that you can restore the OS if you need to without having an OS loaded.

Try here for an example: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segt ... lid=511380

[martha24]

Heikki, sorry to hear about your computer problems.
Oh I hate when computers do that!!!!
I've never had one totally crash & burn on me, so I've been lucky in that way. Also my husband is pretty good with computers too, which helps, but he makes me do most of the work.
I use a couple of different email files & they can be a pain to find, but this last time I did find everything.
Just a total pain in the ....... (choose your own word)
Best of luck to you Heikki & I hope it doesn't cost to many fortunes.

[Classic Finn]

Hey folks Im still here but this old machine is sloooooooooow.
It barely works but at least I can communicate..

Were working on locating a computer ...

Im glad Ive got enough power in this ol HP to get on the Forum but thats about it.

Classic Finn