Saving HDD from dead PC

[BudgiePanic]

 Hello forum :D//

Oh man, do I have a task, one of my friends PC recently started malfunctioning and asked me for help. Since I'm not an expert/professional I've come here for some advice on what I should do.

 

Yesterday I went over to his house and learned these things:

-After pressing the power button the motherboard responded with one beep.

-Image 2 is what happened when I attempted to get the PC to boot into windows

-I WAS able to get into PC's BIOS and a screen where windows asked me if I would like to boot into safe mode but the image was so disrupted it was impossible to read any text on the screen (however selecting an option would result in the PC locking up and not doing anything)

-The Mobo had no integrated video so I couldn't take the GPU out to test if that was the problem (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128068 From memory I think this is the Mobo) 

 

This has lead me to conclude that the video card is damaged/malfunctioning but the rest of the computer is still functioning as I could still navigate through the BIOS. The PC is full of dust, hasn't been maintained very well, the dust has probably damaged the GPU, there was dust on exposed SLI bridge.

 

Computer Specs:

-OS: Windows XP

-GPU: Geforce Nvidia 8800GT

-CPU: Intel core duo (not sure of exact model)

-HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (S/N: WMATV3906577, Model: WD1001FALS, Date of purchase: 27/10/2009, SATA interface)

-Mobo: Gigabyte (not sure of model, blue PCB if that helps)

 

After seeing this and talking to him I'd like to do the following:

-As his PC is old he said he would like to replace it with a new one but transfer/keep all of his programs and files. (I'm confident the HDD is still functioning, didn't make any strange sounds when I turned on the PC)

 

I am not sure how to transfer the data from this old PC over to a new one, I've read that windows gets attached to its current hardware so it won't be as simple as plugging the HDD into a new PC. I did find this software that claims to be able to do it: (http://www.zinstall.com/how-to/how-to-recover-your-programs-and-files-from-a-broken-computer)

 

Do you guys have any suggestions? Or should I take this to a professional and find him a new PC to put the files onto?

 

If you would like more information I'm happy to respond.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

The GPU seems fine since it still shows the BIOS screen. I suspect a corrupt drive. Looking at the state of it... Yeah not surprised at all.

[BudgiePanic]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

The GPU seems fine since it still shows the BIOS screen. I suspect a corrupt drive. Looking at the state of it... Yeah not surprised at all.

I tried disconnecting the HDD and turning it on and still saw heavy screen corruption, I think the Video card is damaged

[Nicnac]

Oh my god...

 

maybe you can read out the files from the hhd on another pc before everything is lost.

[Guest]

Windows XP doesn't really like being swapped to new/other hardware. I would have a hard time thrusting any software that tells me it can do it.

 

The symbols on the screen are garbage, but it doesn't have to be the GPU. All symbols are propperly displayed, which makes me think it's some other issue. But never mind about that. I do agree the HDD might be just fine.

 

What I personaly would do: get a new/different computer, and plug this old HDD into it, as SECONDARY drive. That way you can go trough the files on the drive. Making a manual list of all the installed software, and recovering any saved files. Can take some time, and it might be an "interesting project" to find all said files. But it's possible.

 

Back-up all those files to a different drive, and then whipe the drive itself/format it. You can then reinstall all them programs again, and put the saved files back. Lots of work, but with Windows XP, it's your most safe bet.

[BudgiePanic]

2 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

Windows XP doesn't really like being swapped to new/other hardware. I would have a hard time thrusting any software that tells me it can do it.

 

The symbols on the screen are garbage, but it doesn't have to be the GPU. All symbols are propperly displayed, which makes me think it's some other issue. But never mind about that. I do agree the HDD might be just fine.

 

What I personaly would do: get a new/different computer, and plug this old HDD into it, as SECONDARY drive. That way you can go trough the files on the drive. Making a manual list of all the installed software, and recovering any saved files. Can take some time, and it might be an "interesting project" to find all said files. But it's possible.

 

Back-up all those files to a different drive, and then whipe the drive itself/format it. You can then reinstall all them programs again, and put the saved files back. Lots of work, but with Windows XP, it's your most safe bet.

I don't have an alternate PC to look at the drive - I think I'm going to point this to a professional and consult my friend on getting a replacement PC.

[littlegreen]

I would suggest you advise your friend to buy the new computer, install an Operating System of choice, and THEN hook up this hard drive and try to salvage as much as you can. 

 

Else, you can always get an external HDD enclosure and try to work off of that. 

 

In reality the hardware is old and useless - and so is the WindowsXP installation on it.

Saving programs' cache is a huge undertaking and not something I would ever bother with. Either direct him to a data recovery professional - whom he should visit with the HDD AND his new machine, or else salvage pictures, videos and documents - if you can that is -  and move on to a new computer. 

 

In any case - avoid turning this machine on, especially since you don't know where the problem lies. If the hard drive is on its way to fail, putting it to unnecessary work will just speed up the process. 

[Jurrunio]

2 hours ago, BudgiePanic said:

I tried disconnecting the HDD and turning it on and still saw heavy screen corruption, I think the Video card is damaged

Dying graphics card shows something like this:

[BudgiePanic]

8 hours ago, littlegreen said:

I would suggest you advise your friend to buy the new computer, install an Operating System of choice, and THEN hook up this hard drive and try to salvage as much as you can. 

 

Else, you can always get an external HDD enclosure and try to work off of that. 

 

In reality the hardware is old and useless - and so is the WindowsXP installation on it.

Saving programs' cache is a huge undertaking and not something I would ever bother with. Either direct him to a data recovery professional - whom he should visit with the HDD AND his new machine, or else salvage pictures, videos and documents - if you can that is -  and move on to a new computer. 

 

In any case - avoid turning this machine on, especially since you don't know where the problem lies. If the hard drive is on its way to fail, putting it to unnecessary work will just speed up the process. 

Thank you for the advice, since I'm not familiar with migrating data from an old drive to a new drive I'm going to recommend to my friend that he take the HDD to a professional for getting the data back. I'll help him choose a new PC to move on to. When doing tests like seeing if I could enter BIOS I disconnected the HDD so provided it wasn't damaged beforehand it should be OK.

 

7 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

Dying graphics card shows something like this:

In the days leading up to the PC's failure, it was experiencing image degradation similar to this. We did try multiple monitors and saw the same effect on both.