09-19-2003, 10:59 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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Won't you help save a Dying Laptop?
Here is the situation and I am hoping someone has an idea I have not thought of.
My boss brings me her personal Dell laptop that is a few years old. The OS (Windows ME :roll: ) is hosed and it won't boot. Boot up with a 98 boot disk and get a DOS prompt for a: and c: . Can't run a full dir for c:. It will show the files, but just hangs when calculating the space. Hangs the same way when trying to run a scandisk of the drive. Dell support wants her to format the drive and reinstall. I tried a reinstall without formatting and it just hangs at the scandisk. Plus she has data that was not backed up that she really wants, and I can access and copy the files from C to A. BUT, the files she needs are all bigger than 1.44 MB. Since I am stuck at a basic dos prompt, I cant use any external devices or write to a CD. I went to buy one of those Flashpath FD to MMC card converters so I could have a larger FD, but the package said a driver was required to be able to use it. I could not find a dos based zip program or a program that would split the larger files into multiple smaller files that would actually work. The last things I can think of are to try and find an adapter that will allow a notebook HD to be hooked into another PC, or have her go to a data recovery service.
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09-20-2003, 12:03 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 210
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Here's a suggestion. Attach the laptop to a network and use a network boot disk to boot the laptop. Create a shared folder on the network, map the folder to a drive letter on the laptop (using the boot disk), and copy away.
You could also try attaching a usb hard drive. You probably have to upgrade the BIOS for USB to work.
Did you try a Dos-based zip utility like PKzip?
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09-20-2003, 05:01 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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I bought a 2.5" to 3.5" hard drive adaptor just for that very reason: if my laptop happens to die, I can pull out the hard drive, attach it to my desktop, and pull off the data. Got one on eBay for about $5.
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09-20-2003, 07:01 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Not even sure if LapLink still supports a DOS window, but that used to be a fairly common way of moving files from one PC to another. You had the serial or the parallel Laplink cable options. (This was back before networks  )
__________________
Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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09-20-2003, 07:25 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Another suggestion: if you have an old parallel-port Zip drive lying around, you can usually use the old Iomega "guest" driver.
Also, to add to what upplepop said, you could just grab a copy of PKZip 2.04g, which supports multiple-floppy spanning. I'm sure free copies are floating around...
Mind you, Jason's idea of slaving the hard drive is best. Otherwise, if you run from DOS you're going to lose all the long file names... unless you find the old LFN backup utility, which is a bit of a pain.
--janak
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09-20-2003, 09:55 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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Thanks all, I think I am going to try the zip drive as I have everything to do that with. If that fails, I will order the adapter to make it a slave.
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09-20-2003, 10:23 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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What I'd do is get the 2.5"/3.5" adapter and an external USB/Firewire enclosure to connect to the desktop.
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iPhone 4! ☠☠☠ Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro! ☠☠☠ Gateway LT2102h! ☠☠☠ Dell XPS M1210!
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09-21-2003, 01:18 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ctmagnus
What I'd do is get the 2.5"/3.5" adapter and an external USB/Firewire enclosure to connect to the desktop.
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Since this is a one-time use, I want to minimize the expense. The adapter is cheap, but the enclosures are more expensive. Plus the drive is probably shot, I think it is about dead and just lucky that any files can be read off it. The laptop is still under warantee, but they won't take it back until she tries a format and reinstall. So pretty much as soon as I get the data off, it is going back to Dell.
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09-23-2003, 01:52 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Goldkey
Thanks all, I think I am going to try the zip drive as I have everything to do that with. If that fails, I will order the adapter to make it a slave.
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Just finished, the zip drive with guest driver worked like a charm! Thanks everyone for the ideas!
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09-23-2003, 03:29 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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:rock on dude!:
--janak
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