[PrimaFlower]

Hi guy's

I need your help please???

My laptop has been off for repair for nearly 6 weeks and came back to me late last week saying that it was fixed and test was ok (apparantley the video cables had to be fixed). The problem I had was when I started it up I just had a black screen, it looked like it was off if the power lights weren't on and if it wasn't making a start up noise.
So I phone PC World and they said that teleplan would get someone to pick it up, cut a long story short I have asked for a replacement as the laptop came back and is still the same as before and it is past their 6 week turnaround thing but they want to pick up my laptop and then write it off. The thing is I have recent stuff on there I want to back up, majority of it is backed up but some stuff isn't. Is there any way I can do a back up of my stuff with a blacked out screen? I have an external hard drive which is where I back my stuff up onto.

ANY help would be muchly appreciated!

Thanks

[zerocool]

I can't think of any device that will allow you to back up your laptop without a screen, if you have a desktop pc or have a relative or friend that has 1 I would ask them if you could borrow the monitor and plug your laptop into it and back up your files that way onto your external HDD

[Cew27]

there are a few ways, put the hdd in another laptop or buy one of these which will then transform it into an external harddrive and you can back it up vis usb on another computer
also you will need to see if the harddrive is sata or ide and you may need to get a different caddy depending on which it is the one i linked above is sata, if you dont know how to fund out just give us the make and model and we will find out ;)

[PrimaFlower]

Thanks for your replies. My parents have a desktop computer, so how do I plug my laptop into the back of the desktop?

Thanks!

[PrimaFlower]

Forgot to say I have Samsung X30.

[Cew27]

assuming its the screen that is broke and not the graphics card you should see a monitor out on the laptop you will need to see what connection the monitor on another pc that you can use has a monitor in then all you need is a monitor to monitor cable from pc world and you could try that but the cable will be around 10 pound whereas the caddy is 5 pound and you will always have an external hard drive that can slip in your pocket

[Cew27]

is this it ?
if so its an ide hard drive and you will need this
the "2.5" IDE to USB 2.0 External Aluminium HDD Enclosure Hard drive Caddy VISTA MAC Linux" one

[PrimaFlower]

Many thanks for your help, I was able to get my neighbour who is a computer technician so he took it back to his as he has the stuff for it but no good, he isn't able to get the data off, he even took the hard drive out and did it that way but nothing. He said that It isn't the hard drive that has gone so I will see if teleplan can do anything when they receive it.

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated!

[spot]

"I just had a black screen, it looked like it was off if the power lights weren't on and if it wasn't making a start up noise" sounds like the laptop isn't running, otherwise as Cew says your neighbour could plug his own screen into the back of the laptop and run it that way. No start up noise means he can't.

If "he even took the hard drive out and did it that way but nothing" then it sounds like you have no data on the hard drive to back up anyway since he's a computer technician. If it were there and he took the drive out to look for it he'd know.

Tell us about the "recent stuff on there I want to back up", what does it consist of? Notes that you typed in but never printed? A thesis that you have a paper copy of? Photos from your digital camera that you deleted from the camera after you loaded them to the laptop? Two of those three we can have a shot at fixing for you without the laptop or the disk.

[Cew27]

indeed using an external caddy would allow you to access all data on the harddrive unless it is the harddrive at fault and from the sound of it it doesn't appear to be the harddrive