You present quite a problem. What OS is do you have on this PC?
If sounds like boot file failures. Most of the time even if the drive can’t be repaired you can still recover the data. I got an adapter to run a hard drive on a USB port for about $35. It doesn’t have a cover because it is designed for repair work. It is good for both ide and sata drives.
Do you have any DVD’s that have the SO files? If so the easiest repair would be to replace the old hard drive and new build. And then recover data from old drive.
Your files are on the hard drive not the computer.
Look online for a cheap alternative to tide you over until you get a job.
I’ve seen Windows XP machines go for $50. Nothing wrong with them. In fact, look at major computer manufacturers, Amazon and Frys.com. they will have cheap alternatives that you can use for now.
You will still need an external hard drive enclosure to recover your info on the disk.
Don’t take it to a nerd and expect they will get everything you need. Besides, they charge $300 for bare service and $1,500 to get everything.
Look for the external hard drive enclosure at the same places above. $50-$75 bucks or just start asking around. You might have a friend who just happens to have one or you can get one super cheap on Craigslist.
Go to www.majorgeek.com follow the instructions EXACTLY. If you don’t have good computer skills, get a friend who does. If you make a single mistake, you’ll nuke your computer. If you don’t, and it’s salvageable, you’ll salvage it.
You are either going to recover all, some or none of this data you have lost access to right now. You still have your life, your kids and God's Love. I suggest that you pray and think of Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer;
God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Next hug your kids and then write down on paper these suggestions us kind strangers have given in the order you think are logical and practical. Writing them down allows you to think calmly about them. I strongly suggest the simplest first which to me is to take the HDD to a computer shop to see if it is still good. If it is, then so is your data, you just need to get access to it.
Wishing you the best!
Follow one of the multiple options upthread or salvaging your data first before trying majorgeek. (I assumed a virus issue.)
This may sound simplistic, and it may not work, but have you tried going to the control panel and clicking “system restore”? If you can get there, it will restore your computer to an earlier date before it crashed.
Ok, wait, wait, wait...I just checked my filing cabinet and found a package that belongs to my laptop...I don’t remember making the disc, but it has my handwriting and says “Dell Laptop back-up disc, 3/21/10”
What do I do with it? Will I still lose all my pictures and everything added after that date?
I also found 2 discs that say “Dell Application, for reinstalling cyberlink powerDVD DX 8.2 shoftware for Microsoft windows XP and Windows Vista. For reinstalling cyberlink powerdvd DX 8.3 software for windows 7”
And “Dell Application for reinstalling dell webcam central software”
Those 2 don’t seem to have anything that will help, right?
The next thing is to work on the clone disk to see if you can read your key files to save them elsewhere. (USB drive or the like.)
If some or all of the files that you need are unreadable, they still can largely be salvaged. At one point I had a disk crash and recovered 99% of the files using Power Quest's Lost and Found. Unfortunately, they were bought by Norton and are no longer available.
However, this site may be helpful: http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7588_102-354911/lost-and-found-or-the-storage-forum-sticky/
Most likely you can probably recover a lot of the data even if it was a disk crash. However it is critical that you make a clone copy first and stop messing with your original disk. Do NOT write any files to your disk or run any program, even check disk, until you get a clone copy. The more you screw with the original, the more likely it becomes that you will overwrite some file that you could otherwise recover.
Good Luck. The odds are that you have not lost your data files yet ...and... if some are damaged, most if not all can be recovered with a relatively cheap peace of software.
Any Staples store will do the trouble shooting on your computer for $15.00
Once you know what is wrong, you can make the decisions on fixing it.
This is kind of post-barn-door-closing, but get a bunch of DVD’s (or invest in a high-speed cord & backup device) and back up everything. I just did this a few weekends ago and took about 25 DVDs: cost = $30 bucks and a rainy weekend.
Set up a restore point & backup disc.
Buy & keep updated some firewall, virus, trojan, ad-aware, etc. software (there’s plenty of free stuff at cnet).
Good luck
I’m learning a lot from the people who are answering your request, because I am unfamiliar with the current generation of laptops. I had one three years ago. I dropped it once, and that killed it completely. Shattered something inside it, and turned it into expensive junk. But when it comes to desktops (Compaq Windows 7), I know that you can click F11 repeatedly for about 20 seconds, and that usually clears up blue-screen problems. And when you do get your computer up and running, you need to go to the Control Panel and uninstall as many unnecessary programs as possible. There are programs in there that you don’t need and don’t even know are there, and some of them have viruses, trojans, and unwanted cookies.
Sorry, I can’t help you. I’m an Apple person.