hey guys... hoping someone could help me out... first off, about ten years ago I had a HP xt933 desktop running windows me... one day it froze and after several attempts to shut it down I had to resort to unplugging the system. when I rebooted it, it did the usual improper shutdown scan and went to my main screen but there were no icons and my wallpaper was in like 8 bit color (extremely pixelated and hardly recognizable)... I called hp tech support, they bill my credit card 40 bucks, connect me to some middle eastern guy that I can barely understand and he has me push a specific combination of buttons and proceeds to tell me to delete, delete, keep, delete, etc. etc... as I understood it we were getting rid of obsolete drivers... anyway after about 20 deletes the system blacks out and shuts off, he says sorry I cant help you anymore, no refunds... fast forward 8 or 9 years... ive found the computer and monitor in the barn at my dads with years of dust and mouse feces to boot... brought it home, cleaned it up... it turns on and prompts to start up normal, or safe, or command prompt etc. normal goes to desktop with no icons or mouse, task manager (cntrl alt del) is accessible but there is nothing there... safe is the same except there is a mouse and it prompts me to select a driver, the mouse disappears and there are no drivers (either auto search or advanced) it also says during start up that there are errors somewhere and to run scanreg but I don't have the opportunity to do so... I would like to resurrect this system but at the very least I would like the thousands of photos and art work that is on it... anyway, I hope someone can help... thanks... ps I can provide other info if possible...
file recovery or ressurection of 10+ year old desktop
- Thread starter flip665
- Start date
Before you try to repair your Windows ME boot problem, you should save those thousands of photos and art work that is on the hard disk. Otherwise you are very likely to end up with a working PC but all your photos will be gone.
Take out the IDE hard disk and plug it into another PC so that you can locate and copy the photos.
Then and only then should you consider re-installing some O/S.
BTW, an HP PC that has been running Windows ME is certainly more than 10 years old. I wouldn't waste my time resurrecting that.
Take out the IDE hard disk and plug it into another PC so that you can locate and copy the photos.
Then and only then should you consider re-installing some O/S.
BTW, an HP PC that has been running Windows ME is certainly more than 10 years old. I wouldn't waste my time resurrecting that.
It is possible but requires a IDE-to-USB adapter for 3 1/2 inch hard disks.
Unless you happen to have access to one of those, you would have to buy one. They can be ordered from China or Hongkong on eBay. After that it will be of no further use to you.
It would surely be easier to find a friend/neighbor/relative who has a desktop PC with a motherboard that still has IDE socket(s). Anything that is more than 1-2 years old would probably qualify, as the more recent motherboards don't have any IDE ports.
Of course you would then need to copy the photos over to your laptop which is another step.
Here's another idea. Get a Linux CD and boot from it on your HP system. You can then find the photos on the hard disk. That still leaves the problem of copying to your laptop which would have to be done via the network.
Without knowing more about your expertise and resources, it's difficult for me to make a recommendation.
However, I'm happy to help you recover your files. I responded initially to warn you about taking "drastic" action that would very likely wipe out what you wanted to preserve. I expected to see all kinds of suggestions from other users about restore, recover, re-format, re-install, etc.
But I was wrong. I'm glad. Everything should still be intact.
Here are a few questions:
1. does your HP XT933 have a working CD drive?
2. do you have any USB storage device(s) such as USB hard disk or USB stick?
3. where do you want the photos copied to? or alternatively, is it important that you get that HP system working again?
It MIGHT be possible to do that reasonably safely without resorting to USB adapters, Linux or network transfers. The only serious requirement would be to follow MY instructions only. Even then there is a chance that something might go wrong and the photos be lost for good.
For now I suggest you get a Linux distribution on CD and use it to just look at things on the HP >>>> DON"T INSTALL LINUX !!!
Unless you happen to have access to one of those, you would have to buy one. They can be ordered from China or Hongkong on eBay. After that it will be of no further use to you.
It would surely be easier to find a friend/neighbor/relative who has a desktop PC with a motherboard that still has IDE socket(s). Anything that is more than 1-2 years old would probably qualify, as the more recent motherboards don't have any IDE ports.
Of course you would then need to copy the photos over to your laptop which is another step.
Here's another idea. Get a Linux CD and boot from it on your HP system. You can then find the photos on the hard disk. That still leaves the problem of copying to your laptop which would have to be done via the network.
Without knowing more about your expertise and resources, it's difficult for me to make a recommendation.
However, I'm happy to help you recover your files. I responded initially to warn you about taking "drastic" action that would very likely wipe out what you wanted to preserve. I expected to see all kinds of suggestions from other users about restore, recover, re-format, re-install, etc.
But I was wrong. I'm glad. Everything should still be intact.
Here are a few questions:
1. does your HP XT933 have a working CD drive?
2. do you have any USB storage device(s) such as USB hard disk or USB stick?
3. where do you want the photos copied to? or alternatively, is it important that you get that HP system working again?
It MIGHT be possible to do that reasonably safely without resorting to USB adapters, Linux or network transfers. The only serious requirement would be to follow MY instructions only. Even then there is a chance that something might go wrong and the photos be lost for good.
For now I suggest you get a Linux distribution on CD and use it to just look at things on the HP >>>> DON"T INSTALL LINUX !!!
so I don't know if the cd drive works... it did the last time I used it, as I was playing a disc game when it crapped out... I do have access to storage deices and another desktop which im going to try tonight... im assuming you just plug in the harddrive into the splice plug in the ribbon cable in the other pc??? do you have to remove the power cable from the other pc to plug it in or what... im gonna wing it anyway tonight when I go over there but it is a newer pc so I might be out of luck... if it doesn't work out how does the Linux cd work if I have no capability on my pc... no drivers or nothing.... just get to the desktop screen and pop the disc in???
the only reason I wanna 'resurrect' the pc is for my 8 yo daughter to use as I have some old pc games she wants to use...
anyway, thanks again for the help, its greatly appreciated, ill let you know how it turns out....
the only reason I wanna 'resurrect' the pc is for my 8 yo daughter to use as I have some old pc games she wants to use...
anyway, thanks again for the help, its greatly appreciated, ill let you know how it turns out....
Does the person who owns the "other" PC have some technical expertise ?
If not, please keep in mind that it is possible to screw things up. I'm not being negative or condescending here, just a bit nervous after reading your question about how to connect a hard disk to a PC.
The safest way is to find a free IDE 40-pin connector on the motherboard and using a ribbon cable to go directly to the hard disk and nowhere else. Even easier would be to find that the DVD drive is IDE, so that you can simply connect the hard disk in its place. That's pretty unlikely.
If however, there is NO IDE port on the motherboard or the only port is in use, it's getting too difficult. There is little chance that you would successfully set the master/slave jumpers.
In summary, take your hard disk and a ribbon cable with you. It needs to be long enough to reach outside the case where the hard disk sits. There will almost certainly be a spare 4-pin Molex power connector from the power supply. You will need to connect that also. Now you can power up the PC. It will probably try to boot Windows ME and fail. You want to boot from the main hard disk to get the working operating system up, so you need to select the proper boot drive either by changing the boot priority in the CMOS settings or hitting F12 during POST. Maybe it's a different key on this system, I don't know.
If it doesn't work, give up ! Seriously !!
And if this whole thing takes more than 10 minutes, you're doing it wrong. I'm not talking about copying the files, obviously. We haven't got that far yet.
But if you are successful you should see the disk in Windows explorer and you can browse and copy the contents.
I hope this works out. Best of luck !
If not, please keep in mind that it is possible to screw things up. I'm not being negative or condescending here, just a bit nervous after reading your question about how to connect a hard disk to a PC.
The safest way is to find a free IDE 40-pin connector on the motherboard and using a ribbon cable to go directly to the hard disk and nowhere else. Even easier would be to find that the DVD drive is IDE, so that you can simply connect the hard disk in its place. That's pretty unlikely.
If however, there is NO IDE port on the motherboard or the only port is in use, it's getting too difficult. There is little chance that you would successfully set the master/slave jumpers.
In summary, take your hard disk and a ribbon cable with you. It needs to be long enough to reach outside the case where the hard disk sits. There will almost certainly be a spare 4-pin Molex power connector from the power supply. You will need to connect that also. Now you can power up the PC. It will probably try to boot Windows ME and fail. You want to boot from the main hard disk to get the working operating system up, so you need to select the proper boot drive either by changing the boot priority in the CMOS settings or hitting F12 during POST. Maybe it's a different key on this system, I don't know.
If it doesn't work, give up ! Seriously !!
And if this whole thing takes more than 10 minutes, you're doing it wrong. I'm not talking about copying the files, obviously. We haven't got that far yet.
But if you are successful you should see the disk in Windows explorer and you can browse and copy the contents.
I hope this works out. Best of luck !
TRENDING THREADS
-
-
News Microsoft updates Windows 11 24H2 requirements, CPU must support SSE4.2 or the OS will not boot- Started by Admin
- Replies: 14
-
-
-
Question New Build GPU help- ASRock Steel Legend OC Radeon RX 7900 GRE - Keeps turning off
- Started by bp240
- Replies: 6
-
Question How can I make my AMD GPU scale *all* resolutions to 1080p, even resolutions that are "supported" by my TV?
- Started by Sol33t303
- Replies: 7
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
-
-
Question New Build, Fans Running, RGB working, no mouse, no keyboard, no display- Latest: drivinfast247
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram