Complete laptop novice needs some help! :)

clarafmclarafm
edited September 2010 in Hardware
Hi everyone,

I have literally no knowledge of laptops or computers and I tend to just search around online to see if I can sort things out myself but I'm completely stumped on this one...

My laptop (Toshiba / Windows XP) decided to get itself stuck in a reboot cycle the other day which annoyed me no end. I had a little look on the internet on my desktop computer to see if I could figure out how to get it to load up again but none of it made any sense. The laptop itself isn't particularly important now as I went out and bought a new one (I'd had my old one for about 5 years so I used the fact it went all weird on me as an excuse to treat myself to a new one! :)) however, I am concerned as I have quite a few important files that I forgot to backup and some software that I've since lost the disc for installed on the old laptop.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to offer me some steps (in simple terms) as to how I could get my old laptop up and running again? and also is it at all likely that when/if I do get it running again my files will still be on there?

Many thanks :)

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2010
    Do you really need to get that laptop back up and running? There are ways to recover those files without going through the incredible hassle of fixing the particular issue you've described with Windows XP.
  • clarafmclarafm
    edited September 2010
    It would be nice to have it working again - mainly so my boyfriend can use it + I'm quite attached to it and don't like the thought of it not working, but the most important thing really is to just get the files off of it
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited September 2010
    Getting files off is relatively easy. Just get (or borrow) a USB-to-SATA adapter and plug it into your new computer and pull the files you want like it is a flash drive. If the drive won't show up then it is probably failing to mount at all (though if I were you I would test it using an Ubuntu live CD and a forced mount or something along those lines).

    Getting applications off is probably as close to impossible as you can get, especially considering you are probably transitioning from XP to Windows 7. Someone else may want to speak to that but I am not going to go down that road

    After you pull your files, you can re-install Windows or attempt repairs (we'd have to do more troubleshooting anyways but I agree with Thrax's assessment that it will be a hassle).
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