Laptop borked - need help!

G

Garnett

New Member
Hi there. New to the forum and seeking help.

My old laptop has slowly been getting worse and worse. It's slow, crashes frequently, and the CD drive seems to only function if I hold the tray closed tight against the machine.

I want to reformat the harddrive and start again.

The problem is I have a lot of data on the machine. I bought an external harddrive intending to transfer everything on to that but the laptop doesn't recognise it when I plug in the USB cable.

My current way of thinking is to buy a cheap new 2.5 inch harddrive and swapping the old one out. Hopefully then I can put the old harddrive in an enclosure and get the data off that.

Then I can shove the new (I'm presuming IDE???) hardrive into my laptop and start afresh with the machine.

Where are the noob faults in my plan?

Thanks for any help you can offer.
 
One thought.
Your usb is not detected in windows.
for backup i would goto google and query 'usb panasonic dos driver'.
I have a boot disc with usb support. works well. im afraid you will also need another proggy for dos to make this happen. ntfsdospro. (to read the files in dos)

if you can start windows then network the laptop then backup to another computer.

I never lost the usb ports in windows. you could goto microsoft and query usb windows xp pro. maybe replace the drivers. Of course its another job.
 
If your laptop is older than 3 or 4 years then I would presume that it is IDE rather than SATA, although if you post the make and model I could look it up to be sure.

However, you might try fixing the USB problem before spending money on a new hard drive. My guess is that it is a driver issue. Again, if you post the make and model I could locate the USB drivers, and reinstalling them might fix the problem.
 
PohTayToez said:
If your laptop is older than 3 or 4 years then I would presume that it is IDE rather than SATA, although if you post the make and model I could look it up to be sure.

However, you might try fixing the USB problem before spending money on a new hard drive. My guess is that it is a driver issue. Again, if you post the make and model I could locate the USB drivers, and reinstalling them might fix the problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not sure what the root cause of the problem is. My computer is a HP Compaq nx6125 (same link as in the OP).

I'm not sure if it has a virus, or whether I've messed up some settings, but it has progressively got more and more temperamental, and crashes more and more frequently.

Tremmor, your suggestions are good, and make sense, but I cannot access the internet with the machine, and when I could, any installation seemed to fail.

PohTayToes, the same applies. I'm just not convinced the USB issue is my main problem. I think there's something wrong elsewhere and more fundamentally.

Am I wrong in thinking I can take out the HDD and put it in a new enclosure and use it like an external HDD?

Also, if I put a new HDD into the laptop, is it a case of simply reinstalling Windows and starting afresh?

If so, then I really feel this is my best solution, but I'm unsure it is a job I can do myself.
 
Garnett said:
Am I wrong in thinking I can take out the HDD and put it in a new enclosure and use it like an external HDD?

Also, if I put a new HDD into the laptop, is it a case of simply reinstalling Windows and starting afresh?

If so, then I really feel this is my best solution, but I'm unsure it is a job I can do myself.
Click to expand...
Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks.
 
I guess the silence tells its own story - too tricky for replies is too tricky for this noob!

Thanks for the replies I did get, though - much appreciated.
 
Garnett said:
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not sure what the root cause of the problem is. My computer is a HP Compaq nx6125 (same link as in the OP).

I'm not sure if it has a virus, or whether I've messed up some settings, but it has progressively got more and more temperamental, and crashes more and more frequently.

Tremmor, your suggestions are good, and make sense, but I cannot access the internet with the machine, and when I could, any installation seemed to fail.

PohTayToes, the same applies. I'm just not convinced the USB issue is my main problem. I think there's something wrong elsewhere and more fundamentally.

Am I wrong in thinking I can take out the HDD and put it in a new enclosure and use it like an external HDD?

Also, if I put a new HDD into the laptop, is it a case of simply reinstalling Windows and starting afresh?

If so, then I really feel this is my best solution, but I'm unsure it is a job I can do myself.
Click to expand...

I would:
1 - Remove the HDD and put it into an external enclosure
2 - Grab the data on a secondary computer.
3 - Put the HDD back into the laptop and then reload the O/S.
4 - Move the data from the secondary machine into the newly loaded laptop.

Things to look out for:

1. When you move the data onto another computer, ensure that you second computer has a current and up-to-date AV program to catch anything in transit.
2. Once data is moved, run a full scan on the system while you put the HDD back into the laptop.
3. Reloading the O/S isn't a real issue, the real issue is that normally mfgs do not supply you with the O/S disc. If you are lucky, you get a "Reinstallation Disc". Normally the reinstallation software is on a partition on the hard drive. So as long as you can boot up into that restore partition you can reload the O/S.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top