My laptop is dead! All that info- gone!!!

[casketcrewchick]

Ok this sucks real bad...

Basically i was trying to replace the dvd rom on my laptop. I bought a new one off ebay for a good price and wanted to put it in. I didnt realize laptops were so freaking harder to fix!

I took out all the screws on the bottom, pulled it up a little but for some reason it wouldnt pull off completely. Anyways, i thought thats ok i have enough room and i tugged at the dvd drive and i thought it just slid into place and the connections would be connected cause looking at the back of the new one there was only one spot wtih connections on it.

I pulled really hard, nothing moved. Opened it with a paperclip and pulled again. Snapped the drawer off but thats ok it didnt work anyways. I grabbed some pliers, wiggled it and pulled real hard. nothing.

OK so i look this morning at it... there is a freaking screw in there conected to a now bent bracket and i have no idea how to unscrew it.

I put all the screws back in, plug it in and it doesnt power on. it shows me that there is power going to it from the AC adapter but nothing will boot.

Now i have to use my gaming computer which sucks cause i have only games on here. All my pics, mp3s, emails are all on the laptop.

Can someone get all my info off of it for me i wonder? I mean it wont boot but i imagine the info to still be there. D-oh!

its a toshiba 1415-s173 satellite notebook btw... 1.5 years of info gone. yeah i know. i need to back it up on cd but it was broke forever. I burned it out.

Anyone know of any online guides that can show me how to get that damn old dvd rom out? i cant figure out how to pick it apart. The damage is already done so i cant possibly screw it up anymore. LOL

[Dan M]

Don't sweat it. You can buy an adapter to plug the laptop hard drive into your desktop, if you want. Or, find out whats wrong and it may be a simple fix. Maybe you jiggled a connection loose when you were tinkering.

For future reference, you should not have to take the whole thing apart to change one module. For my Dell, there's one screw that holds the DVD drive in.

[ July 12, 2004, 12:16 AM: Message edited by: DrSquirts ]

[zlexiss]

What Squirts says. Something like this adapter is probably what you're looking for.

[Rob@USC]

another option is to get an external drive adaptor. Just put the laptop hard drive into it and you have an instant USB harddrive. Then after you get the info off it, you have basically a big, portable floppy :D . I can't think of anyplace off hand that would have it, but you could try allstarshop.com or pcwarehouse.com possibly (I think that's the names of the places, it's been a while since I was looking for parts).

Rob


Edit: I also have a Toshiba laptop and I can vouch for her (atleast on my model) there looks to be no way to get the CD-ROM out short of taking the entire thing apart. Ram, HD, modem, wireless adaptor, and battery all have their own removable cover to access, but nothign else does.

[Deoxyribonucleicvitriol]

If you're just plain looking for computer parts, I recommend www.shopper.com

shopper.com has a bunch of certified sites lined up and compares all of their pricing. Saves lots of time and often helps to find good deals

www.pricewatch.com is sometimes good, but I find there are usually better deals on www.shopper.com

[casketcrewchick]

THANKS GUYS!!!! *me happy now* I never knew they had such a thing.