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Posted September 02, 2013 - 05:48 PM
I lost two computers and a modem so far by a lightening strike.I have a laptop and a desktop and neither one will fire up.What are my options for retrieving information from my hard drives if that is still possible?
I am thinking the problem is past the power supply.Is it worth the effort to try to revive them? They are not high end computers.
On a good note,I have someones pet gobbler and hen hanging around my place.
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Posted September 02, 2013 - 06:08 PM
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Posted September 02, 2013 - 07:19 PM
Sorry to hear about your loss. You never know when disaster is going to strike.
Well the good news is that you can probably take the hard drive out of the desktop and plug it into another computer and pull your files of of it. The bad news is that you can't do that with a laptop computer. If they were shut down when the lighting hit there is a good chance it just got the power supply. If they were up and running then not so good a chance. Open the desktop and see if you see anything burnt.
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Tractorholic
Posted September 02, 2013 - 07:21 PM
you can try getting an usb to hard drive adapter
hope the computes were not on when you had the lightening strike - if they were the hard drive might be so that you can not read the drives
you can take them to a local computer repair shop and they should have the adapter and see if they can read the drive
I had a lightening strike a while back and it got all my computer - too
lucky it was just the network adapter and so I just replace them
good luck
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Posted September 02, 2013 - 07:36 PM
Sorry to hear about your loss. You never know when disaster is going to strike.
Well the good news is that you can probably take the hard drive out of the desktop and plug it into another computer and pull your files of of it. The bad news is that you can't do that with a laptop computer. If they were shut down when the lighting hit there is a good chance it just got the power supply. If they were up and running then not so good a chance. Open the desktop and see if you see anything burnt.
I don't see anything burnt on the desktop.Power supply light is blinking and a light on the motherboard is blinking and the power blinks when I try to power up.
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Posted September 02, 2013 - 10:22 PM
Both the power supply and Motherboard lights should be on continuous. It may be a power supply, they are not expensive. First though let me ask, did you have the computer on a battery backup or surge protector? If so eliminate them and plug it straight away into the wall. If it still doesn't boot then you will have to decide if you want to try and replace the power supply.
It's not hard, usually 4 screws on the back and then disconnect the wires on the mother board and to your peripheral devices. Before you start get your camera out and take lots of pictures so you can see where the wires all go. You can take the model number off the old PS and then you should be able to get a new one. I usually get mine from Frys.com or Newegg.com. Good Luck.
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Tractorholic
Posted September 02, 2013 - 10:49 PM
Not that it helps you right now, but some years back I lost a computer twice due to lightning getting into my computer via the phoneline and the modem. I switched over to a wireless home network after loosing the second computer and haven't had any problems with any of my equipment since.
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Dog Approved
Posted September 03, 2013 - 09:35 AM
On my old desktop, if it got shutdown with a power glitch I'd have to unplug it from the wall and let everything power down. Then plug it back in and it would come back.
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Posted September 04, 2013 - 07:33 AM
I had three computers up and running when the lightening struck and it got two of them along with my DSL modem and my label printer.I always have a spare modem and my netbook is getting me by for now.
Well I just bought an identical desktop ready to go minus operating system for $60 shipping and all and I have found some Toshiba Tecra's for around the $100 range so I will likely go that route and try swapping hard drives.I can remember when a dial up modem cost more than the price of a complete computer does these days.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
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Posted September 04, 2013 - 09:08 AM
When you install the hard drive Windows may complain, M$ has it set up so even if the computers are identical they know it's not the same. You will have to call them and explain what happened then they will give you another code. Good Luck.
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Posted September 05, 2013 - 01:04 PM
Got my desktop up and running again and it was uneventful.Swapped my hard drive and it is working fine and I now have 3 gb of ram.
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Posted September 05, 2013 - 01:15 PM
Good news! Glad it worked out for ya.
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Posted September 07, 2013 - 09:57 AM
New to me HP DC5100 computer did not last long.Locked up tight,keyboard and all and now only get 5 beeps when I try to boot.Power supply checks out ok and pulled memory sticks and same results.Have not had time to dig deeper.
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Posted September 07, 2013 - 12:59 PM
This Link might help you when you have time to mess with it. But depending on what BIOS you have it doesn't look good I'm afraid. Best of Luck.
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Posted September 07, 2013 - 06:35 PM
This Link might help you when you have time to mess with it. But depending on what BIOS you have it doesn't look good I'm afraid. Best of Luck.
Bad memory stick.I thought pulling them all and trying to boot was the test for a bad stick.
