Hard drive failure

[Russ88765]

I have a bit of a problem. I have files on my computer i'd prefer to keep, but want to do a system restore to get the computer working again. How should I back them up? I bought a kingston flash drive but it doesn't show the icon for me to drag and drop files to. I also have an external hard drive which also does not show up. I spend an hour resetting and resetting to get it to boot, and when it does it freezes after a few minutes in the OS.

It's really a nightmare, just a guess but I think the hard drive failed. I have a crappy emachines that i'm trying to replace, would I be able to use any type of 3.5" form factor hard drive with my motherboard? Or are some of them too big to fit in cases? The case I have is definitely a smaller one, so I just wondered if I could use a 2tb seagate barracuda as a replacement. Do I need to replace mobo too, or for now can I just get that hd till I have cash for everything else?

 

[jamesd1981]

you can use your usb stick, if you cant drag n drop, just select the files you want then right click, then send to, and choose your usb stick.

 

[Russ88765]

It doesn't let me select it as an option. It says the other usual options though, briefcase/mail recipient/fax recipient/etc. Do I have to mess with mapping to find the drag n drop icon? If so, how do I get in to the map settings and what settings do I use?

 

[johnb35]

Does the flash drive show up in "my computer"? If not, look in disk management to see if it shows up there, it just may need a drive letter assigned to it. If it don't show up there then you have an issue somewhere.

 

[ElenaP]

As johnb35 said, you should go to Disk Management. Maybe you need to format the flash drive and/or assign a drive letter to it.