Transferring computer data

My desktop died tonite. [This is a PITA--I am working on the wife's laptop, and it doesn't spell for beans ] I think the hard drive is ok--I get a notice on booting up that a usb port has an overcurrent condition and the computer shuts down. The notice is still there when I boot up with all the usb ports disconnected. The computer is several years old, so I am not surprised. I think the solution is to replace it. Like an idiot, I haven't backed it up for a few weeks (months?). There is some data I would like to recover. One option seems to be to find a new one that allows installation of a second hard drive and transfer the data that way. It might be that the hard drive would install in the external drive that I have been using for backup. Am I on the right track? Does anyone have a better idea? TIA for any help.

 

Mine tells me over current condition all the time, still runs fine. If you can't get the computer to boot at all. You take the hard drive out of it, and put it in another computer that does work, or buy an external enclosure for it, and use it as a USB drive to get your data from it.

 

Have you rey booting it in safe mode?

 

I have had this happen before to me. If you have disconnected all of the USB connections and it still shows an error, disconnect the power cord (not simply turn off, but disconnect it) and use a can of compressed air. You know the stuff in the computer section of Wally World? Take the case outside and do a VERY liberal job of blowing off the main board and everything else. What has happened to me was a piece of dust was shorting out one of the USB connections on the main board. So blow it off really good and then try to reboot. See if that helps.

 

Thanks for the tips. I turned it on this morning and it works (the time in the bottom right hand corner is off--don't know what that is about). The first thing will be to back up my data. Then I will blow the dust out. Next time it acts up I'll try the safe mode thing.

 

Time being off suggests your cmos was reset--could need a new battery (not a laptop battery; one of those little round ones that usually seems to last forever). You might try disabling usb ports in the bios if this happens again. No usb is better than no laptop.

 

That might work. Hadn't thought about disabling the usb. I fixed the problem another way, tho. Since I was using XP (which Microsoft is about to quit supporting) and the hard drive had around 5 years on it, I replaced the motherboard, hard drive, dvd, and upgraded the OS. Works great now.

 

Hmm... If you swapped out the motherboard, the new one most likely came with its own battery. That's a new one on me though; I've replaced the other things on your list, but never a motherboard (on a laptop). Good on you brother. Glad it's working.