How do I recover things saved on my crashed PC?

[bigsister]

Is this something i can do myself or do I need a professional, and does anyone know how much that might cost.
Its mainly photos that i want back.
Thanks for any pointers.

[vehelpfulguy]

It depends on what you mean by crashed.

If the actual hard disk has crashed, or had a major failure, then you may have problems getting your pictures back, or if you want them then it may cost you a lot of money.

If the PC has crahsed and the hard disk is OK (or at least workable) then it should be possible to take it out the PC or laptop and put it in another PC or laptop as a "slave" and it will be very easy to get at the pictures on it.

You could for example buy an external hard drive case, put the hard disk in that, and link it via a USB cable to the PC.

If the hard disk is working, then getting the pictures off there will be easy.

[vehelpfulguy]

And I know you dont want want to hear me say this, but this is why we always say to people

BACK UP YOUR PERSONAL FILES.

To anyone else reading this, realise that a PC can easily crash and your data can be lost in seconds.

A laptop (or PC) can be stolen, your house could be flooded, or you may have a fire.

In all these cases EVERYTHING on the PC could be lost.

Just stop and think for a moment, if my PC or laptop was stolen today what is on there that I would REALLY miss.

School, work, college work, university work, digital pictures, music, home videos, important personal filesetc.

BACK IT ALL UP TODAY ON TO CD OR DVD.

[bigsister]

Thank you Veryhelpfulguy - I will from now on back up my files. I think I'll put it down to experience - there was only one photo I particularly wanted, so never mind, thanks for your answer, it was very useful, I'll keep it in case I can retrieve info from the hard disk later.

[kaw69]

Hi
I used to be lazy on back-ups until I got Norton 360 and it automatically back-ups every week to either cd or dvd which I thought was a pain until
I was burgled one night whilst at a stage production of my eldest sons play and on return my pc along with a load of ornaments and film dvd`s were taken but my inconsiderate back-up dvd`s were left so I still have my memories
Long live back-ups

Kevin

[bigsister]

Thanks everyone.