Need some help helping out my cousin

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anarky
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Need some help helping out my cousin

Post by anarky »

I just got this message from one of my cousins. (I'm considered the computer-savvy one in the family, but I'm at a loss here since I know nothing about Linux.)
I WAS TRYING TO RETRIEVE SOME FILES FROM AN OLD COMPUTER THAT HASN'T BEEN USED IN SOMETIME. IT BOOTS UP FINE BUT IT WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO CLICK ON ANY ICONS OR OPEN ANY FILES. A FRIEND SAID IT MIGHT BE THAT WINDOWS IS CORRUPTED. I HAVE HEARD OF A SYSTEM CALLED LINUX AND BEEN TOLD THAT IT CAN BE USED TO RETRIEVE FILES FROM THIS COMPUTER. WHEN I CHECKED ON THE LINUX SITE FOR A DOWNLOAD THAT I COULD RUN A DISK I WAS OVERWHELMED. ANY IDEA WHAT TYPE OF DOWNLOAD I COULD USE TO RETRIEVE THESE FILES FROM THE OLD COMPUTER????????????

THANKS
Any input you guys can offer?
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vynsane
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Re: Need some help helping out my cousin

Post by vynsane »

the best and easiest thing to do would be to take the hard drive out of that machine and connect it as a slave to a functional computer's hard drive. then you can transfer the files as you would any other linked drive.
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Seven
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Re: Need some help helping out my cousin

Post by Seven »

vynsane wrote:the best and easiest thing to do would be to take the hard drive out of that machine and connect it as a slave to a functional computer's hard drive. then you can transfer the files as you would any other linked drive.
I concur! I've done that before and it works like a charm! Way better than d/ling new software!

Awesome call Vyn
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Re: Need some help helping out my cousin

Post by Diabolical »

Tell him to start by turning off Caps Lock.
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anarky
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Re: Need some help helping out my cousin

Post by anarky »

That was my first thought, too, but he's not very computer-savvy, so he probably doesn't realize it's "shouting."

I got an update (I asked if the mouse was working, in case maybe it was a hardware issue). He says he can move the mouse around, and can search files using the start menu, but can't actually click on files. I'm going to tell him his best bet is the slave driver thing (that's a bad attempt at a pun), but any clues what would cause it to act like that?
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vynsane
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Re: Need some help helping out my cousin

Post by vynsane »

virus, corrupt dll files, old hard drive about to fail, just windows being windows... take your pick.
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