(I wanted to do a poll, but there was no option)

I think a lot of you have a shit-ton of computer nerd knowledge that could be helpful (esp. Dave). I'm suggesting (hopefully I'm the first) a forum for tech questions. Mainly, because I fucked up a laptop a while back and need help accessing the damn HD (I never remember to backup files). Also, I'm sure there are problems that a few of us run in to, and at the rate technology advances, a tech forum could come in handy.

So . . . how bout it?

I do that for a living.  If your good at something, you don't do it for free.

Secondly, I don't want to be bothered with tech stuff in my free time..


(Sorry, that comes off a lot more douche sounding in writing..)

This technology will solve all tech problems:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sledgehammers-1.jpg

We had a "Computer Tech Support" thread in either "For Sale" or "Rhubarb" ...
You're more than welcome to start another one ...

I do that for a living.  If your good at something, you don't do it for free.
Secondly, I don't want to be bothered with tech stuff in my free time..
(Sorry, that comes off a lot more douche sounding in writing..)

I don't mind for friends and loved ones, so long's it's on MY terms ...
You know?

But, Justin; feel free ...
If it goes beyond that need, I'll consider a forum for it ...

One thing you might try is pulling the hard drive out and slaving it on another computer so it's acting only as storage.
Acronis have some great programs for cloning drives. If your header info has been corrupted and the disk thinks it's unformatted there are ways to recover from that as well. I've had to do that a couple of times but I don't remember what program I used.

SpinRite ...

One thing you might try is pulling the hard drive out and slaving it on another computer so it's acting only as storage.

pulled the HD and found that it had two rows of pins that I couldn't transfer to a regular PC. It wasn't a SATA or SCSI so I had no way of slaving the drive on my desktop.

I did some research on the O/S problem and apparently other tech forums suggest running an artificial environment from a boot disk so that I might have a chance to rescue some files.

If it wasn't " It wasn't a SATA or SCSI " doesn't that only leave IDE? You should be able to slave it to any older PC.

Assuming it isn't a fucking MAC.

Maybe try getting an external drive bay for an IDE drive that connects to the host through USB.

I have one of those I have used to access a number of old drives. size doesn't seem to matter to the onboard conversion.  I was tempted to use it with a new terebyte drive but I installed it in the machine instead.

I believe it's EIDE parallel ATA. Yeah, obviously my new computer isn't going to carry the 1990s ribbon cable connections.

If it were a Mac, I would go with Emp's advice. It's a Dell Inspiron B130. I ordered it around 2005ish and it held up from years of porn abuse until two years ago. Got a lot out of that machine. But now I need to extract what important shit is stuck on the drive.

Porn abuse takes a toll. I can't count the number of times I've gone to war with bugs over the years. But I have never had to reinstall windows to get rid of one.

Yeah the external drive bay seems your best option that I can recommend, you can get one at discount PC suppliers really cheap. Not likely to find one at thrift stores though because they are so useful for accessing old drives.

The original drive in my external case was less than a GB, But I have sucessfully used it with a 300gb drive.

http://www.shopping.com/AGPtek-USB-2-0-to-SATA-IDE-Hard-Drive-Cable-Adapter-Converter/info?sb=1

Yes, they are quite handy to have.  That one is $14.00, you can probably find it cheaper, that was just the first one on the search results..

I was just about to post something similar ...
I use them CONSTANTLY ...