[rango]

i am posting this from my laptop as i fear my desktop may have died

i have an HP pavilion a1230n, i have added a new video card ATI radeon HD 4350 (over a year ago)

i recently (3 months ago) reformatted the HD due to virus

last night we aparently had a couple of short power outages in a short time period

this morning i went to use my computer and there is an error message on the screen

"boot from disk failure, please insert system disk"

i powered down, tried again, same message

i tried again, went into setup, verified my boot order, and tried again, it would only go the HP boot screen and hang there

shut it down, took my son to daycare, came home (30 minutes), now it wont even get my monitor to respond, it searches analog and digital and then nothing, the yellow bust light stays solid

my friend says my HD is toast, i need advice i have sensitive legal documents i need on the HD

[floppybootstomp]

No display at all?

Then it's likely your whole desktop is faulty.

Power outtages can cause a surge on reconnection which can take out any one of a variety of components.

The answer here is to use a surge protector plugboard, they're commonly available in high street stores.

As for the data on your hard disk I'd suggest buying a suitable hard disk caddy, putting your hard disk in it and seeing if you can read the contents of the disk with your laptop. If you can, retrieve the data and BACK IT UP. Usb stick, CD-R, DVD-R but back it up.

Which, if you'd done in the first place, you wouldn't be having a crisis now.

A hard disk is not a secure place for data storage, it's a mechanical device and therefore prone to failure.

Good luck with your data retrieval, you'll have to determine whether your hard disk is PATA or SATA and then get the relevant caddy. PC World do them, if you take your hard disk along to a store they will be able to advise you which type to buy. It'll probably cost 25 to 35 pounds.

Maplins also do a variety of suitable caddies, including a 'tray' type where you simply plug disks in and out, rather than mounting one disk permanently inside a case.

If you're going to get a replacement desktop PC - and this is my own personal opinion - I'd avoid PC World, HP, Compaq, Dell, Mesh (especially Mesh) and all of those major brands you see with falsified reviews in magazines and buy from a reputable private local dealer or I would suggest Novatech online, they're based at Portsmouth.

Good luck.

[floppybootstomp]

Almost forgot:

You can also download a Linux Distro (Mint, Ububntu, Damn Small Linux will do the job) burn the ISO to disk then boot from the Linux OS. This will be a 'Live' OS and only reside in the computer's memory and you should be able to read the contents of your hard disk.

If so, then back up to a USB stick.

[rango]

yeah i have a surge protector, always use one with my pc, and as for linux ive had numerous issues trying to get a live cd to operate on this machine in the past

what confuses me about the display is that it was working this morning, at which point i turned the surge protector off to prevent all power from going to the unit