Need solution to computer problem

[Uninformed]

I have a 1.5 yr old HP laptop/tablet. Yesterday, I put the computer to sleep and when I woke up, I could not get the computer to start back up. I have tried restarting multiple times. The computer lights turn on but the comuter doesn't boot.

Are there any tricks that I should try? If not, what is the best way to recover the data from the laptop hard drive. Once I get the data, I can extend the laptop warranty and send it back to HP for repair. A policy which I really hate is that if I send the computer to HP now, HP will reformat the hard drive without attemting to recover the data.

 

[MilkmanDan]

Try pulling the battery for 5-30 minutes.

It may be the case that the backlight for the screen has gone out. Try hooking up an external monitor (if possible).

If you can't get it to boot after that, you can get a USB adapter for the hard drive and plug it directly into a desktop PC to recover your files.

 

[14tokihorn]

If you find that your hard drive is the culprit -

The Knoppix 'Live' has a file manager that will see your Windows files,so you can move them to another storage device, like a USB drive or External disk.

You have to dwnld the Knoppix version, its an image, as I remember, brn it to CD, them plop in your laptop... it'll boot without your HD, then hunt around for the File Manager.

 

[Uninformed]

In reply to:

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[MilkmanDan]

Sorry. What I meant to say was you should get a 2.5" HDD enclosure.

Remove the hard drive from the laptop, install it in the enclosure, and connect the enclosure to another PC via USB.

 

[Mr. Longhorn]

The same happened to me on my HP laptop. I bought a device from tigerdirect.com that will hook up your laptop hard drive to the usb of your desktop computer. I'll PM you the link when I get home later on today. After that I am going to get into the laptop bios and reformat the comp to its original settings.

 

[MilkmanDan]

And how is getting into the bios going to help you with that process?

 

[spidey69]

Following on the Knoppix recommendation, there are several Linux distributions with 'Live CD' options. Any one of them would probably work for data recovery. I use 'Puppy' Linux at home, but would not recommend this route unless you are tight on cash or want to learn a little about Linux anyways. It takes a little time to understand the file system.

I think you can buy one of these enclosures for $30.