Can I back up a hard drive that wont start up?
815775
Don't need to do anything hard. Insert your Windows Installation CD-Rom in the Drive, boot your system from CD-ROM, then go on installing windows, then Select " Repair Windows ", that's all you need to do,, nothings gonna change ...
1161761
use "DiskInternals Undelete" to recover the lost data to another proper drive, then you can reformat the c: drive and the it should work fine.. install windows then copy the recovered data back to the formatted drive
1061293
only with a special cabel.  I would suggest getting a jump drive (usb memory stick) and transfering the files that way.  If the HDD has crashed then you have a very expensive option.
232067
Try this:  http://onlinebackup.connected.com/
181074
make one back up disk of your system then when you get these probs you can copy from the disk and replace the file.
170533
Well, you should be able to plug it in and be able to boot off your new drive. Even if you can't, it won't hurt the computer if it fails, so give it a shot.
23411
use the windows CD or also called back-up cd
785454
take it to any technician. dont do anything yourself u dont know about. u r facing this problkem b/c it fell down. harddisk is most likely a sensitive equipment. always be careful with it.
5945
As long as the hard drive is plugged in and it shows up in your computer's BIOS (and is given a drive letter) then it doesn't matter where it is... or what enclosure it's contained in.\n\nIf you're using Windows, you should be able to right click on that drive and choose "Format".
1001859
Back up everything while you can. See if the drive is still under warranty and able to be replaced by the manufacturer, if not then buy a new one.
1011981
Most external hard drives are just an internal ide drive with its own power supply. You should be able to remove the drive, set it as slave and install it in your PC. This is pretty simple. If the drive is still ok, you can then recover the data.
116452
Once a drive has been repartitioned the only way to recover it is if you previously did a backup. In that case you can do a restore.  If you have no backup for the drive then there is no way.
824729
will it boot into safemode (f8 on boot)? if so do a system restore ... if not ur sol i think ...there wont be any other backup unless you made one ... if you know what files then pull ur drive and stick it in the machine ur using now and copy the files you need to the system folders ...
946746
If its windows, or any OS, the only way to prevent data loss is with a solid backup routine. If a machine crashes, the work you were doing got scrammed because it was in the Memory. Even if it was on the HDD it is now almost unrecoverable, almost. A Mirror Image of the HDD will restore everything on the drive, it takes about 5 mins to make one, but at least you have a stable image of a working system.\nIf the pen drive had a Boot File on it, and an OS, you could use it to access a failed HDD, but that would be one mojo pen. \nIf the system crashed, you can enter Safe Mode, MS-DOS, and maybe get to the Root Dir. from there you can copy files to the pen drive, again, it better be a big pen. Or a very small file.
539811
you may have the first symptoms of you hard drive failing\n\nis your system old\n\nwhen you shut own your system can you restart straight away and it goes into windows? if yes - basically!!  you hard drive has to warm up before it will kick in and read - that why it takes a few times to turn the pc on and off before it will start - from a cold start\n\nback up your data be prepared for a hard drive failure\n\nif your pc will not start up after shutting down - you may have a bad sector on your disk - try doing a scan\n\nclick on my computer - right click over you hard drive - then click properties - then click on tools - click on the option to scan the hdd for errors - make sure both the check boxes underneath are checked\n\nthis will do a scan next time you reboot you system \n\nlook for any errors - this will take some time\n\nhope this helps\n\nps\n\ncheck in your bios - some bios versions have a hdd checker - eiher a short version or a extended - if so try this\n\n;)
84928
There is a software called Easy recovery that has tools for testing the mechanical and logical functions of any hard drive.  You need another hard drive if you are going to attemp any data recovery though.  Check the website.
710505
Your hard drive has failed. Contact a technician.