Hello,
This is my first time posting here, so I apologize if I break forum etiquette rules. I’ll try to be as thorough as possible without being as wordy as possible, which I have a habit of doing. Finally, I’m not completely inexperienced with computers, but I would consider myself a novice. I’m willing to look like a complete dolt in exchange for clear instructions, so please feel free to “How to [Fill in the Blank] for Dummies” me. That said, here’s my problem…
I’d known that my hard drive was on its last legs and that I was on borrowed time. (It was roughly 5 years old.) After a couple of crashes/freezes on Sunday, I figured it was time to back everything up onto an external drive, which I did. I also made a Windows Image Recovery file. It ended up being a wonderful plan because the next time I turned my computer on, my system could no longer find my hard drive. I bought a new hard drive (Seagate) that was the newest model version of the hard drive that had just died. There were no issues with the physical portion of installing the new drive.
Upon turning on the computer, I was taken to a setup screen that only involved naming my computer and setting the time. I was never asked about formatting or partitions. After this, I was taken to a brand new Windows desktop. I decided that I would try to use the backup on the external drive to see if I could recover the stuff from the old hard drive. I rebooted and, while I could find various files, everything was installed into other directories and no settings or drivers were applied. I knew this was a possibility, so I decided to take the more drastic step of using the Windows image recovery.
Obviously, that didn’t work either. While the computer recognized the external drive and its contents, it wouldn’t let me do anything with them. So, I tried to just go in and reformat and start again. It wouldn’t allow me to do that either.
I tried to get into BIOS to set a boot order. While the screen had F2 for boot options and F12 for system options, pressing those keys did nothing but make the computer beep at me. Every time I did this, it would just load all the way into Windows.
Then, I disconnected the external drive and took out the recovery disk. I was taken to a blank screen with a cursor. I then plugged the external in and this happened again. I put the recovery disk in and this happened again. I did both and it happened again. Now, I’m just endlessly taken to a screen with a cursor and have no options.
To wrap up:
- Old drive died
- Got new drive
- Wanted to restore old drive onto new drive via backup or image restore
- Can’t access BIOS, system set up, or boot set up
- After a long string of things, I now have a black screen with a flashing cursor.
Any help would be appreciated.
P.S. Windows 7, by the way.
This is my first time posting here, so I apologize if I break forum etiquette rules. I’ll try to be as thorough as possible without being as wordy as possible, which I have a habit of doing. Finally, I’m not completely inexperienced with computers, but I would consider myself a novice. I’m willing to look like a complete dolt in exchange for clear instructions, so please feel free to “How to [Fill in the Blank] for Dummies” me. That said, here’s my problem…
I’d known that my hard drive was on its last legs and that I was on borrowed time. (It was roughly 5 years old.) After a couple of crashes/freezes on Sunday, I figured it was time to back everything up onto an external drive, which I did. I also made a Windows Image Recovery file. It ended up being a wonderful plan because the next time I turned my computer on, my system could no longer find my hard drive. I bought a new hard drive (Seagate) that was the newest model version of the hard drive that had just died. There were no issues with the physical portion of installing the new drive.
Upon turning on the computer, I was taken to a setup screen that only involved naming my computer and setting the time. I was never asked about formatting or partitions. After this, I was taken to a brand new Windows desktop. I decided that I would try to use the backup on the external drive to see if I could recover the stuff from the old hard drive. I rebooted and, while I could find various files, everything was installed into other directories and no settings or drivers were applied. I knew this was a possibility, so I decided to take the more drastic step of using the Windows image recovery.
Obviously, that didn’t work either. While the computer recognized the external drive and its contents, it wouldn’t let me do anything with them. So, I tried to just go in and reformat and start again. It wouldn’t allow me to do that either.
I tried to get into BIOS to set a boot order. While the screen had F2 for boot options and F12 for system options, pressing those keys did nothing but make the computer beep at me. Every time I did this, it would just load all the way into Windows.
Then, I disconnected the external drive and took out the recovery disk. I was taken to a blank screen with a cursor. I then plugged the external in and this happened again. I put the recovery disk in and this happened again. I did both and it happened again. Now, I’m just endlessly taken to a screen with a cursor and have no options.
To wrap up:
- Old drive died
- Got new drive
- Wanted to restore old drive onto new drive via backup or image restore
- Can’t access BIOS, system set up, or boot set up
- After a long string of things, I now have a black screen with a flashing cursor.
Any help would be appreciated.
P.S. Windows 7, by the way.
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