PLEASE HELP: My T42 just crashed with VERY important info

[jeffjune]

My T42 laptop just died completely and I called IBM and the tech support said they're going to send a new harddrive. Do you guys know how to get my old stuff back? They couldn't help really other than saying get an external harddrive and try to send all the stuff through BIOS to the external. ANY help would be appreciated because I have patient information on here that I need. If not recoverable, can I permanently delete the info so that people can't get it later? THANK YOU !!!!

[pianowizard]

Are you sure the hard drive is dead? Perhaps it's other components (e.g. the motherboard) that failed?

If it's indeed the hard drive that's dead, one trick that might briefly resurrect the drive is, put it in a ziplock bag, squeeze out as much air as possible, seal the bag, and store it in the freezer for several hours. After several hours, take it out, let the hard drive return to room temperature, toss it back into the computer, and start the machine. The chance of success is low, but it's worth a try.

Besides that, I think there are companies that have special equipment that can get dead hard drives to spin and retrieve files from them, although I have heard that they charge a premium for such service.

[jdhurst]

Two different answers:

1. While there is no guarantee, Spin Rite is a decent hard drive recovery tool that generally does what it says on the box.

2. It seems to me unlikely that IBM would attempt to get your data off the drive. If you return it, enclose a letter asking them to destroy any data on the drive.

... JD Hurst

[jeffjune]

Thank you so much. Is there any way to find out what went wrong? IBM tech support checked a few things and then decided to send the new harddrive under warranty. But she said if I get an external harddrive and then go to IBM recovy - I can try to copy everything to the external. The only thing is that none of the documents show up where it allows you to select the files to copy.

[pianowizard]

I have two things that would be very helpful in such a situation: 1) a laptop-to-desktop hard drive adapter, and 2) a USB external case for laptop hard drives. Using the former, I can access the laptop hard drive as a slave drive in a desktop computer, and using the latter I can plug it into the USB port of another computer. If the drive is working fine, I should be able to access its files.

[w0qj]

If you computer cannot boot up at all (no fan, no BIOS bootup message, no CD startup activity, no HDD spin-up, it may be motherboard problem... (i'm assuming you have your notebook computer plugged in & battery has juice...)


Generally if you don't know if it's a motherboard problem or HDD failure, I would switch off my notebook computer, take out battery, then proceed to take out its HDD, put it into external USB HDD enclosure, and see if another computer can see the HDD contents.

If you can copy HDD contents on another computer, great news!

If you cannot, it may be motherboard problem, or HDD drive failure, MBR failure [I've actually experienced this firsthand].



FYI, for my MBR failure, I bought a new 2.5" notebook HDD, run Product Recovery on your NEW HDD (you did burn these, right?), so my notebook computer ran properly on my new 2.5" notebook HDD. Then i put the old HDD into external USB enclosure, and did data recovery off it...

After that, I kept my old HDD in same external USB enclosure for data backup purposes...

[jeffjune]

So I had a friend offer his help and give my laptop to his in laws to fix. The computer starts up again (it asks to start in recovery mode or Windows XP on startup but other than that it's normal). All my data is there in my My Documents except 1 very, very private file. I had encrypted this with fingerprint BUT the guy got access to my files so I imagine he could have access to this ONE folder. The most important file in that folder was encrypted but that ENTIRE folder is missing!! I am a little suspicious that he took this file but it would be so stupid to not leave me a copy and raise suspicion. Do you guys know if encrypted files aren't recovered? I am hoping it got deleted at best because I'd be in bad shape if that file got out.

[EOMtp]

You do not state if you had used the Thinkpad encryption or Windows XP's encryption. Nonetheless, the encrypted data will be safe -- indeed, it will be unrecoverable -- if your friend used any means which override the normal Windows password(s). There are several ways to gain access to Windows XP even with full security enabled and with passwords set; however, encrypted folder(s)/file(s) on the hard drive require "industrial strength" decryption hardware/software -- guaranteed that this is nothing that the fellow next door, or your friend, or his in-laws have! And certainly no one at IBM with whom you would be dealing ... You're fine.

[jeffjune]

You do not state if you had used the Thinkpad encryption or Windows XP's encryption. Nonetheless, the encrypted data will be safe -- indeed, it will be unrecoverable -- if your friend used any means which override the normal Windows password(s). There are several ways to gain access to Windows XP even with full security enabled and with passwords set; however, encrypted folder(s)/file(s) on the hard drive require "industrial strength" decryption hardware/software -- guaranteed that this is nothing that the fellow next door, or your friend, or his in-laws have! And certainly no one at IBM with whom you would be dealing ... You're fine.

This is GREAT news!!!! Thank you. I am not sure what I used. I just right clicked the file, then selected encrypt this file. It required my fingerprint to open it. I just thought it was strange that the folder it was in didn't show up but regardless, if the file can't be opened that is good enough. Thanks for your help.