Hard drive crashed, can I retreve any files?

[walrus]

My daughter was using her very old Dell Inspiron 1501. Not sure if it was Vista or XP. Writing a paper using MS Word when the computer froze. The mouse/keyboard didn't work. After waiting an hour with no change she shut the computer off. Now when I turn it on I get a black screen with;
Warning The battery cannot be identified
This system will be unable to charge the battery
press any key to continue
Press F2 2 times to enter setup
press f12 to enter boot menu

Press any key leads to;
startup repair cannot start computer


The Dell Pre-Boot System Assessment (PSA) Test passes everything OK.

Under Command Prompt;

C:\>chkdsk/f gives me;
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems

67582975 KB total disk space
61999500 KB in 186972 files
125856 KB in 29085 indexes
5112020 KB available on disk---
It shows an almost full disk but then shows almost all the disk is still available.

While

C:\>dir gives me ;

autoexec.bat 24 bytes
config.sys 10 bytes
net_save.dna 875 bytes
systeninfo.ini 71 bytes
Windows, drivers,users and everything else, no bytes

4 file<s> 980 bytes
11 dir<s> 5,225,533,440 bytes free


When I hooked up her hard drive to my computer I see this, but don't see any of her personal files

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8492/aharddrive2.jpg

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/8748/aharddrive3.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1005/aharddrive4.jpg

I just want to retrieve any files with her photographs. Thanks

 

[Bubbaleone]

Those figures actually indicate that the drive has approximately 65 GB capacity, and 5 GB free space. With her drive hooked up to your PC you'll need to set your Folder Options to view hidden files and folders.

You may also need to take ownership of her entire drive as well as give yourself full control permissions of all folders, sub containers, and files, in order to view her files.

In other words; the drive appears to be fine. It appears there's another hardware problem preventing her laptop from booting.

Dell&#8482; Inspiron&#8482; 1501 Owner&#8217;s Manual

 

[Steltek]

The "battery not recognized" issue is a pretty well known problem with the Inspiron 1501's (just do a Google search for that message and 1501, and you'll see). There isn't any one known fix that works for everyone.

Some folks have fixed it with a BIOS update, others with a new battery and charger, while for some neither will fix it. Often times, the 1501's also won't work with OEM batteries or chargers.

The last 1501 I personally worked on with this error actually had a loose power jack (i.e. the charging jack where the cord plugs in was actually moving around slightly, which caused it to partially separate from the motherboard). Dell has a history of using crappy power jacks on their laptops, but the 1501's have the extra special crappy ones.

You need to determine what folder she stores her photographs in - you can try looking in the \Users\(ACCOUNTNAME)\My Pictures folder, where ACCOUNTNAME is her username. If they aren't there, you'll need to navigate around until you locate them. If she used a particular application to manage her photographs, you could look in its directories within the Program Files folder to see if they might be there.

 

[walrus]

I set my computer to view hidden files and folders and found them in users/, more than 4 GB of them. Going to transfer them to her new computer or buy her a flashdrive . Not really worried about the 6 year old laptop. Thanks

 

[Steltek]

I set my computer to view hidden files and folders and found them in users/, more than 4 GB of them. Going to transfer them to her new computer or buy her a flashdrive . Not really worried about the 6 year old laptop. Thanks

Your daughter was very lucky in this instance - she is getting her files back. She really needs to purchase an external drive and learn to perform a proper backup regimen to prevent this from happening again.

 

[sm625]

Install it in an xp machine. It might even be quicker to install windows xp on a spare hard drive than deal with the flakiness of that ownership crap. It does NOT work the way it should. I've had serious problems trying to take ownership and get access to files on another drive. You do NOT want any of that windows bloat buggy crap mixed up with what you're trying to diagnose here.

 

[Matt1970]

Dell has a history of using crappy power jacks on their laptops, but the 1501's have the extra special crappy ones.

I like that.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Install it in an xp machine. It might even be quicker to install windows xp on a spare hard drive than deal with the flakiness of that ownership crap. It does NOT work the way it should. I've had serious problems trying to take ownership and get access to files on another drive. You do NOT want any of that windows bloat buggy crap mixed up with what you're trying to diagnose here.

Your inability to correctly apply Windows file permissions indicates a lack of knowledge, rather than a flaw in the process itself.

The OP had already gained access to his daughter's files, obviously understands how to transfer them, and wasn't concerned with trying to "diagnose" anything further.