Computer crashed, boots only to a blank screen, is data recoverable?

[kay_li13]

Hi,

So I have a Windows XP computer from Toshiba, that is 2 years old.  It has been freezing up and so I've been having to push the power button to restart it.  Except this last time when I did that, it restarted to a black screen, and the only thing I could see was the mouse pointer (and I could move it around).  I tried restarting it again several times after that, and Windows would give me 2 options, to start windows normally, or to start it from my last good configuration.  Neither of these work.  Even in the safe mode, it shows only a black screen with safe mode on the corners.  It boots up to the windows page, but does not get as far as the login page before going to the black screen.  Right now I am most concerned with getting my data off of the hard drive, since I have 60gb worth of stuff on it.  I looked up some articles that recommended moving the hard drive to another computer, but I don't know how to do that.  What should I do?  I was planning on using the recovery disk to format the drive anyways, since I just got a new Mac, but not before I got all my important data off!  So my question is, is there a way to get this data?  And how should I go about it, whether it be moving the hard drive or not. Please help!  And thanks a lot!

[Dusty]

Welcome to the CH forums.

So I have a Windows XP computer from Toshiba, that is 2 years old.

I looked up some articles that recommended moving the hard drive to another computer, but I don't know how to do that.

So far we know you have a  Toshiba computer running Win.XP and that you do not know how to remove the hard drive.  We don't know whether you have a desktop computer, a laptop or a notebook and  we can't tell you how to remove the hard drive because the process is different for each one.

Please read this and come back with the information.

[kay_li13]

Hi,

I have a laptop, it's a Satelite, a105.  I'm running windows xp, and the most recent software change I did before the crash happened was I uninstalled a language program.  The computer I plan to put the harddrive on to get the data will either be a macbook (the recent one) or a gateway notebook running windows xp. 

Thanks!

[patio]

I wouldn't suggest the MacBook...2 different beasts.

You're best bet is to hook it up to a Desktop running Windows XP.
Installing it in another laptop the chances it will boot are slim to none.

Get one of these : laptop 2.5"HDD to IDE connector



You DO NOT want to attempt to boot to this drive if data recovery is your goal.

[kay_li13]

Okay, I do have another desktop running Windows XP that I could put the hard drive in, but how do I get the hard drive out of my laptop, and plug it into the desktop?  (The reason I want to do this is because I read somewhere that by doing this I could retrieve the files on the hard drive by using explorer to get them.)

[Dusty]

See steps 1 thru' 4 here.

Good luck

[kay_li13]

hi,

i just ordered an enclosure for the hard drive.  which i'm going to try first before attempting to plug it straight into another computer. 

thanks, for the tutorial!

[patio]

Seeing how enclosures are around 20 + Bucks and USB is less reliable for data transfer especially when you may get only one shot at it i can't comprehend why it gets recommended here more often than the 5 dollar item i listed...

Oh well.

[Dusty]

Oh well, does it make any difference that the link I posted shows it's a SATA drive?   I hope the enclosure covers ide and sata.

[kay_li13]

the enclosure is sata, but i only ordered it because i'm afraid to take my desktop apart since i don't really know how to install a hard drive, and the case seemed easier...

[kay_li13]

it worked! thanks for the help!

[Dusty]

Excellent outcome, thanks for coming back to report your success.

Good luck