Computer/Hard Drive problem..

[uppityupton]

The family computer downstairs is really old (approaching a decade now ) and I think it's died and I need a little help with a couple of issues. Let me explain what has happened to the computer first of all.

Although it's as slow as a dead snail, the family PC has always been reliable but recently (in the last 3 weeks) it started restarting alot by itself at random times. This wasn't too much of a problem because my family only use the computer sparingly, to check the odd e-mail/facebook/ebay auction so a crash here and there wasn't much of a problem.

However, yesterday when my dad tried to turn the PC on it got to the part of the loading up process where you see the Windows XP logo screen with the scrolling bar below it, stayed on that for about a minute and then it just restarted itself, started booting up and got to the same part of the load up process before restarting. It does this everytime, and trying to load the computer up in safe mode makes no difference.

The biggest concern of my parents is that there are ALOT of photos on the computer they really don't want to lose so I am doing my best to recover the pictures somehow.

I figured a good way to do this would be to take the hard drive from the family computer and put it in to my computer so I could move all the pictures from that hard drive to mine. However, I'm having some problems. When the hard drive from the family computer is connected to my computer it takes ages to boot up in to windows, and all the time it's doing this the hard drive from my family computer is grinding and churning away. When I've finally got in to Windows (I'm booting in to windows from my hard drive, not the family hard drive obviously) if I try clicking 'My Computer' the computer hangs, I get the hour glass icon and it takes a good few minutes before 'My Computer' section opens and I can continue. My PC detects that the family computer hard drive is connected but when I double click it I get the old churning, hour glass and hang syndrome for a few minutes until it finally tells me that the (D: ) drive is not formatted and asks me if I would like to.

I'm really confused, what is going on? What is with all the hanging and loading while the hard drive is connected to my PC, and when I double click it to try and browse the hard drive why does it tell me the hard drive is not formatted?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[drmsucks]

You did the first thing that I would have recommended - now it's time to quit.

Sounds like the old drive is (or about) shot. If the data on the drive is important to you, I would IMMEDIATELY quit using the drive and look for a data recovery specialist. They are very expensive but what's the value of a 10 year old picture? You run the risk of making the data irrecoverable if you keep trying to recover.

Not to add injury to insult and this is not a criticism, but, rather, a suggestion to others:

a) CD-R's (DVD-R) are cheap

b) Flash drives are cheap

c) External hard drives are cheap

d) Data recovery is (very) expensive


                                        *BACKUP YOUR DATA NOW*


                                         *BACKUP NOW AND OFTEN*

[ImnoGuru]

It sounds like from your description that the drive is dying.
It may be that the drive has developed bad boot sector and has become corrupted. Thus all the hanging and wanting to format.
When you add the old computer drive to your NEW/OTHER computer, the drive may not be compatible with the Operating system, NTFC, FAT32 so on  and your new computer wants to format it.
Best to use you old computer then.

Your old computer may actually have a dead BATTERY in it. It is ten years old after all. The cmos battery is easy to change and very cheap. If that is the problem. Buy/get a battery (about $2 worth CR2032) and install it. There are posts in here that will guide you through how to change the battery or you might ask and someone will walk you through it.
Reset your bios date and time. Boot your old drive into windows.
All normal?
Move your photos and save, get anything you want/need from this drive when it is working, it may be your last chance.
Do you have any other drives around to install to this old computer?
Does your old computer have USB connections available?
Try using a USb to send Data/Photo's to saveable location.