Dell complaints

cahillfx · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 23 Jun 2009 Posts: 3

Non techie user and from what I understand my hard drive is bad.
Drive crashed 3mos ago and I spent $49 and all day on the phone w/ Dell to reformat the drive. Dont want to do that again. Just want my pics off the drive if possible.
I removed the HD w/no wires attached. Can I bring this somewhere to see if they can just get the pics off.
Can I use the drive as a slave drive and try it myself.
Any help appreciated.
Also, where can I get a replacement HD and about how much?

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:47 am Post subject:

I think you'll find harddrives at Best Buy, Office Max, etc. Not to mention countless online computer/parts sellers like Newegg.

Just because the drive failed to boot doesn't mean the data is lost. Windows is designed to fail boot before the entire drive becomes unreadable. The longer you try, the less data will likely remain intact, as the drive typically is mechanically shredding itself into dust internally and the dust contaminates the remaining readable sectors.

Yes you can use it as a slave, booting from a good drive then seeing what's readable on the old one.
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cahillfx · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 23 Jun 2009 Posts: 3

Installed a new SATA HD.
Running Windows XP Home on a Dell Dimensions E520 desktop.
Trying to take my pics off my bad HD but my computer doesn't recognize it.
Any suggestions as to how I can do this would be most appreciated.

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:34 pm Post subject:

Are you sure you have the BIOS setting right for adding a drive? They don't just add themselves.

If settings are right and still not recognized, there is nothing left of the drive that is recoverable short of paying a recovery company $1000 and even then there are no guarantees.
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cahillfx · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 23 Jun 2009 Posts: 3

My computer recognizes both hard drives, but says that they are controlled by RAID BIOS.
If i turn the "bad" hard drive on in the setup utility, the computer will not boot,
I don't know how to boot from the good drive, and access the data (if it is still there) on the bad drive.
Thanks for your help.

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 12:04 am Post subject:

Without seeing the options I can't guess how to get around RAID BIOS. Was this a RAID array before it broke? Guessing not. So go to RAID BIOS (since system BIOS insists RAID controls drives) and enable it there.

The drive, not RAID. These consumer RAIDs (1 & 2) serve little useful purpose. One halves storage space, the other halves reliability.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'