Hard drive recovery?

[DrZoidberg]

My old computer won't start and power button blinks and it makes beeping noise. I am scared to think hard drive is broken. Hopefully CPU or something else. I want to take my computer to computer repair store to figure things out but am paranoid of anyone else looking through my data. I have partial backups, but not everything. What if they keep it for a week? I don't expect they'll let me hang out while they work on it?

 

[johnb35]

How many times does it beep? I doubt it's the hard drive, possibly the ram or video.

 

[beers]

Beeping while failing POST usually isn't storage related, although sometimes you'll get beeps for like 'no bootable device detected'. If you aren't even getting video then it's likely something else. As per @johnb35 the beep pattern is important.

You could also always get a 3.5" external enclosure or a dock to put it in and pull the data off of it. I have a hot swap front bay in my garage PC for that purpose specifically.

 

[DrZoidberg]

I think it beeped like every 3 seconds or so. Didn't really keep it on long enough to count them but assumed it would just keep beeping. I think the hard drive contains 6TB. What is generally done to backup data if computer won't start? Assuming a computer repair person fixes the issue but the computer is still on borrowed time, would they setup a cloud service to upload everything to, or would they use portable hard drives that they'll insist on selling me?

 

[beers]

3 beeps is usually RAM, it will usually repeat beep codes every few seconds.

that they'll insist on selling me?

I mean, you need a container for that data.

 

[DrZoidberg]

3 beeps is usually RAM, it will usually repeat beep codes every few seconds.

I mean, you need a container for that data.

True, but I can provide that. If they can fix the issue and I can bring it home I can handle that myself. There is just a lot if large files I generally haven't backed up because they are huge and getting drives for everything would be tough. Particularly since much of it wasn't supposed to be on there long.

 

[johnb35]

If you can provide a video with sound so we can hear what the beeps are doing, we can tell you whats going on. Is it store bought pc or custom built?

 

[DrZoidberg]

The issue resolved. I took it to repair guy and it booted right up. It has been fine since and got my total backup. Repair guy said, "It’s possible one of your peripherals are causing it, or maybe just leaving it unplugged for a little while caused excess charge from motherboard to drains." So still don't know what the issue was, but it's fine now.