I dropped my laptop- can no longer access personal files or Users.

[cazaloo90]

Hello,

I am a complete beginner!

A few days ago my ACER aspire 5532 was dropped about a foot from the ground onto hard floor. After that it would turn on but it wouldn't get past the windows loading page. It would then say it couldn't turn on and it starts to run a diagnostic tool. After ages and ages of waiting, this does not fix it, and it seems to go round in circles.

My neighbor, seems pretty okay with computers had a look at it. He could not open it in safe mode and kept getting the same diagnostic and repair tool that I did.

This evening he used a different operating system to try and access my files that way, though we could see some of the folders he could not get further than the 'User' folder, which is what he wanted to access so he could try save my files to an external hard drive.

He then removed my hard drive, put it in some case or adapter thing, and then used a USB to connect it to my other laptop. I assume it acted like an external hard drive.
The same problem occurred, he could not access my personal files or my 'user' folder- (where all my personal files are kept)

he said it was beyond his knowledge to fix it and said I should seek more professional help- his assumption was that my personal files were corrupt.

I'm not too bothered about the machine itself, but my personal files are very important to me and as an idiot, I did not back them up.

Is there anyway I can restore these files?

If this makes a difference, I am in Germany, my laptop is british and the guy fixing it is American with an American machine etc. so not sure if it makes a difference that my hard drive is british and we have used U.S machines to load the data.

The machine is an ACER aspire 5532, AMD Athlon 64 processor TF-20, 3GB memory, 250 GB HDD.

(I barely know what these specs mean, I just read them off the sticker)

Please help

Caroline

[DaveLembke]

When I am faced with issues like this, I use Linux OS which will allow access to the user data that windows will protect access to. Then transfer the data from the user data location to a flash drive and then its outside of the safety of NTFS file/folder permissions. Knoppix, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint can be used to access this data or another distro of your choice. The problem is that windows detects the folder and data behind it as protected.

If you have access to another computer that can burn a CD, DVD, or create a USB bootable flash drive with Linux OS on the media to boot from, you can then bypass ownership security and access the data.

[cazaloo90]

Hmmmm, I am not sure I fully understand this. I am almost certain he may have tried that- however it could have been slightly different.

Once my neighbor is home from work I'll show him your response and maybe he can try again. Other than that, someone has emailed me saying it will cost me 300-600 euros to fix. So I am eager to find a cheaper solution!

[BC_Programmer]

Because you dropped it, it's likely there is actual physical damage on the hard drive itself. This is especially true if you dropped it while it was on. It's not a case of the data being corrupted, but more likely a case of it being physically destroyed/mutilated on the disk; Dropping it can cause the read/write heads to flip out  (I mean that literally, not figuratively) over the disk, possibly leaving deep scratches. Worse still, the magnetic material scrapped off will now be floating around the disk itself, waiting patiently to fall on the disk and the read head to pass over it again, causing it to scrape along under the read head and rip off even more magnetic material.

[cazaloo90]

What does that mean for the restoration of my files?

[patio]

I would have him remove the HDD and put it in a powered external enclosure...he'll know right away if any data can be salvaged.

[BC_Programmer]

What does that mean for the restoration of my files?

I would guess that even that expensive service you mentioned  has a slim chance of getting much back for you. If you are lucky, it might be something like a logic board crack, but even in that case it's going to need a professional.

[PCdoc]

I would have him remove the HDD and put it in a powered external enclosure...he'll know right away if any data can be salvaged.

There friend already tried that