Platti

Its still got power, I'll have a mess about chopping and changing, see what that brings

Yes they work fine, all the ports are ok ?!?

I will get the screwdriver onto it at thr weekend when I've some time. Fingers crossed, otherwise I'll use the company you posted, they look very good. What do most people do with regards to backups ? Is it a case that I should have several external hard drives with the same info on. or is there another solution. I never want to be in this position again with the possibility of losing stuff. most the data is just a pain to lose but the photo's are the worst bit.

The USB connector in the PC is working fine, just a few things that were connected to it have gone up the swanny.

The HD also has personal bank files and lists of my online passwords on (seemed a good idea before). Is there anywhere I could find a guide to trying to diagnose myself like a step-by-step walk through. I'm reluctant to take it in somwhere becasue of the info on it although I do need to get at the info. Not trying to get someone else to do the work for me and hand it me on a plate, just not sure what to search for on the net.

I think somehow theres been a power surge maybe ? Obviously I'm not too clued up on this type of thing but 2 things that were connected which had there own power supply (external HD & USB Hub) are both now not working.

Hi, As well as my other thread it seems loads has suddenly gone wrong with my PC. My USB splitter (i think thats what its called - gives me more usb ports and plugs into its own power) has suddenly stopped working. However the main issue I have is my Toshiba External 500GB hard drive has locked. It flashes blue & red on the front and is making a clicking sound. It has its own power supply and connects via USB. I have tried it on a few computers and none of them change anything and nothing shows up on the computer. Its really important I get to the info on the hard drive even if its to take off and put onto some other memory device (contains pics from the last 7 years family hols !!!) Would appriciate any help, thanks. .

Thanks for the reply. After pressing F2 and nothing happended eventually it did load up that screen. I pressed Esc and it has then booted up. Would like to try and establish a problem now before I ever turn it off again. it does now seem tho that everythig linked via usb is not working (ext hard drive/ipod connecter/gps connector)

By pressing F12 it opens that menu, however on pressing F2 (setup) it does the same.

On boot up my PC just freezes. So I press the power on/off button to re-boot, it opens up the first page (showing Dell logo) with the option to press F2 or F12. The it goes straight to a black screen with a cursor (underscore) flashing in the top left hand corner. No error message and it does not do anything if I try pressing anything. No a lot to go at there sorry.

OK its fixed. This has however opened up a whole load new problems due to them having just wiped it and started again. I'll start a new thread. I did ask what the problem was but I was just told 'you can spend hours diagnosing, sometimes its just easier to start again. Thanks to all of those ** came up with solutions for me to try.

No nothing that I can think off. I've took it into a shop now to get fixed as was in a hurry. I'll ask what the problem was and let you know.

No. It did the check fine then rebooted itself then went back to the above screen and is now locked again. :confused::confused::confused:

Stop the press......i disconnected my external hard drive and re booted and its running a scan on the c drive. I presume this is totally unconnected, I only disconnected it to move some files on my laptop. Fingers crossed .......

When I turn the computer on it firstly shows the windows logo with the bar moving underneath as it normally does when booting up then the screen goes blank (all black) and freezes at this point.