Official Computer Talk Thread

[webby]

monitor looks like it has a really thin bezel... works really well with the dual setup. You running win 7 with some type of theme?

 

[bootyluvr]

monitor looks like it has a really thin bezel... works really well with the dual setup. You running win 7 with some type of theme?

They have the smallest bezel I've seen on an LED monitor. That's why I got them.

Windows 7 64-bit - no special theme. Why?

 

[Ron Flood]

X79 i7 3820@4.7ghz 360mm triple rad watercooled
16GB quad channel DDR3 2133mhz
240GB SanDisk extreme SSD
2TB seagate for games
3TB hitachi for videos, music etc
2X HD7970's crossfired powering 3x23.6"eyefinity and an Optoma GT750e 3D projector

 

[webby]

^ oh myyy

booty - It just looked like your taskbar/start button area looked different. Could just be my eyes

 

[bootyluvr]

X79 i7 3820@4.7ghz 360mm triple rad watercooled
16GB quad channel DDR3 2133mhz
240GB SanDisk extreme SSD
2TB seagate for games
3TB hitachi for videos, music etc
2X HD7970's crossfired powering 3x23.6"eyefinity and an Optoma GT750e 3D projector

Very Nice! Who built it for you?

booty - It just looked like your taskbar/start button area looked different. Could just be my eyes

Hmm... I use small icons instead of big ones.. :shrug:

 

[Gitrdone42]

Hey I figured I would ask this in here, hopefully someone can help me out. I have a laptop that got hit near the hard drive and it won't boot up, what is the best way to try and recover the things I had saved on it? Is there a way that I could do it at home or should I just take it to a shop to have it done? Thanks for your help.

 

[Ron Flood]

Very Nice! Who built it for you?

Thanks bro. I pretty much bought it piece by piece from NCIX.com.. Crossed over from a X58 i7 930, reused my harddrives and custom watercooling.. Newegg.ca had a killer deal on monitors LED monitors, so swapped my mismatch eyefinity setup(kinda looked tacky) I'm hoping this is my last Case and power supply too... I do all my own puter stuff Booty, honestly I don't really like anyone working on her....

 

[Ron Flood]

Hey I figured I would ask this in here, hopefully someone can help me out. I have a laptop that got hit near the hard drive and it won't boot up, what is the best way to try and recover the things I had saved on it? Is there a way that I could do it at home or should I just take it to a shop to have it done? Thanks for your help.

take it out.. all sata plugs are the same.. try to hook it up to a desktop and see if its still recognized and will rotate.... its just a regular sata power and sata cable that hooks into it, and most most motherboards automatically configure them.. hope this helps.

ps. for example a desktop SSD is the exact same dimensions as a laptop sata drive, just a standard 2.5" HD

 

[Gitrdone42]

take it out.. all sata plugs are the same.. try to hook it up to a desktop and see if its still recognized and will rotate.... its just a regular sata power and sata cable that hooks into it, and most most motherboards automatically configure them.. hope this helps.

ps. for example a desktop SSD is the exact same dimensions as a laptop sata drive, just a standard 2.5" HD

Alright I will see if I can try that, I don't have a desktop or a cable at my house. I could get a cable and probably use my moms desktop to try this on. Thanks for the quick response.

 

[webby]

Depending on the laptop age, it could also be an IDE connection. It could still be inserted to a desktop as a secondary drive to see if it's recognized.

Any local computer people that you know of online? Not to say you couldn't attempt it yourself...but someone who's built/worked on computers could look into it relatively easily.

Data recovery places are very expensive. Like, 1-2 thousand dollars is not uncommon for a HD recovery.

If you get the drive out (or cover to expose the drive), snap a pic of the connection cable and post it here.

 

[Ron Flood]

Depending on the laptop age, it could also be an IDE connection. It could still be inserted to a desktop as a secondary drive to see if it's recognized.

Any local computer people that you know of online? Not to say you couldn't attempt it yourself...but someone who's built/worked on computers could look into it relatively easily.

Data recovery places are very expensive. Like, 1-2 thousand dollars is not uncommon for a HD recovery.

If you get the drive out (or cover to expose the drive), snap a pic of the connection cable and post it here.

data recovery means fixing the drive, mostly taking the platters out, which gets pretty technical... if the laptops less than 5 years old, you should be fine.... and if it IDE, desktops and laptops are different(both are 40 pin, but the plug on a laptop is smaller i believe) .. sucks.... altho honestly i havent had anything to do with IDE for years...

 

[Bulkybear]

Hey I figured I would ask this in here, hopefully someone can help me out. I have a laptop that got hit near the hard drive and it won't boot up, what is the best way to try and recover the things I had saved on it? Is there a way that I could do it at home or should I just take it to a shop to have it done? Thanks for your help.

If you still have access to another computer download an ubuntu live cd image, use unetbootin to write it to a flash drive and boot off that on your laptop. See if it can mount your hard drive. If so grab another usb drive and copy your files over. You could also burn the ubuntu iso to a disk with poweriso and move the files to a usb drive. That's what I would do.

 

[webby]

You are correct on the IDE size difference, but the adapters are really cheap
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119245

 

[Gitrdone42]

Alright thanks for the help, I will see what I can try. The laptop is also only about a year and a half old.

 

[Ron Flood]

You are correct on the IDE size difference, but the adapters are really cheap
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119245

wow they still sell them....? wow im soo out of touch... lol but a quick ebay search bring up a USB to 40/44pin IDE adapter... http://www.ebay.ca/itm/USB-2-0-to-I...ive_Cables_dapters&hash=item46029729e4&_uhb=1
but you are definitely right my friend, lots of options.... unless the drive itself is toast, which will totally suck...

 

[Ron Flood]

or you could maybe try this http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Dual-USB...ive_Cables_dapters&hash=item2c68824e8f&_uhb=1

there are single plug adapters, but USB2.0 spec doesnt have enough juice to power a mechanical drive, thats why there are 2 plugs....

 

[Ron Flood]

If you still have access to another computer download an ubuntu live cd image, use unetbootin to write it to a flash drive and boot off that on your laptop. See if it can mount your hard drive. If so grab another usb drive and copy your files over. You could also burn the ubuntu iso to a disk with poweriso and move the files to a usb drive. That's what I would do.

good idea... and maybe go into your bios and see if your HD is even recognized by your system still, since its not booting.... most desktops are the 'DEL' key, but i found most my laptops are 'F12', your manual that came with your laptops should tell you.... but im thinkin its a cracked MB... if i had to guess.....

 

[bootyluvr]

Work provided me with a SATA/IDE to USB kit/adapter that they purchased.

It's something like this -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

Basically you pull the hard drive from the computer and connect it to this adapter (power and data cable) and then plug the USB into a working PC. It acts like a secondary drive.

 

[Bulkybear]

Most likely a seized hdd imo. It was probably dropped while spinning and caused the read head to bounce off the platter.

 

[bootyluvr]

Wireless headset... Anyone use them? I'm tired of my Plantronics headset. It hurts my ears and I hate the cord.. ugh