Hardware My laptop crashed (help please)

[RemixDeluxe]

So I dropped my laptop on my floor, not on purpose but it was resting on a desk but it was not securely on the desk and it took a 2-3 foot drop to the floor. Whenever I try logging on to my account on my laptop I get a blackscreen with only the mouse icon in view. After 5 mins I shut it off and I successfully go into safe mode with networking where I am now typing up this disaster.

Is it possible at this point to backup my computer?

 

[nico445]

Yes, backup all your stuff trough safe mode to a USB Drive or a external harddrive. and then do a fresh format and reinstall Windows. that would be the best way I guess

 

[RemixDeluxe]

Yes, backup all your stuff trough safe mode to a USB Drive or a external harddrive. and then do a fresh format and reinstall Windows. that would be the best way I guess

When I am in safe mode am I able to use programs like "backup and restore" because it's not allowing me to do so. Could I possibly use a SATA cable and connect my HDD to an external HDD using another laptop as a medium?

 

[nico445]

can't you just use copy from windows itself? maybe your method could work. a easier way is to download a livecd to backup your stuff. I use Ubuntu for that you can download it for free. then just burn it and boot from it

 

[Originality]

It's times like these that I always have an external drive or two ready to use, one of which is simply an external HDD dock for quick backups. It works both ways - either plug an external drive in and copy everything over in Windows safe mode, or take the laptop drive out and use an external drive/dock to plug it into another laptop/computer and copy it over that way.

The fact that you're able to enter safe mode at all implies that there's no serious damage to your computer, and for you to get as far as seeing the mouse means that you're only having trouble loading explorer.exe. There are ways to fix that, although I prefer just reinstalling Windows from scratch (every year or so) to give your laptop a fresh start. Don't forget that Vista/7 can reinstall Windows without deleting your old files - it'll just move them to a Windows.old folder.

 

[Click This]

Tbh it sounds like your hard drive was damaged from the fall. Windows is now trying to access bad sectors while it's booting, and therefore freezes up when it can't it properly. Try using CHKDSK to see if your hard drive is damaged.
At this point because you can only use safe-mode, programs like Acronis True Image(Basically creates a ROM of your hard drive which can be "unzipped" to another blank hard drive) likely won't work(But you can try).
If Acronis won't work, I'm afraid you'll have to copy-paste your data to an external drive, and reinstall programs when you get a new disc drive/format.

 

[Zetta_x]

It probably had a hard shutdown falling = corruption. Some of the dell laptops we have at my work come with free fall sensors that would minimize damage done from falling.

 

[Originality]

I thought it was the HDDs, not laptops themselves that had free fall sensors.

 

[Zetta_x]

Yeah, I know the HDD as mechanisms to lock the headers (or something like that) but I am unsure if they are equipped with an actual accelerometer or if that's built into the laptop which notifies windows to use the locking mechanisms of the HDD.

Not exactly sure

 

[Click This]

Most higher end computers have free-fall sensors. I remember the iBooks had them, and so does my Thinkpad.
Doesn't look like your laptop had that, though.