Hi,

Got a Dell Dimension C521 ( old as the houses ! ) , decided it wouldn't turn on yesterday morning, Powerlight on for a second then straight off, Great! Further investigation worked out that by unplugging the 4 pin Atx 12v cable , all components would fire up , obviously excpt the the Motherboard, so guessing thats goosed then! Main question is how hard is it to get the info off the old hard drive, as it has lots of photos and wifes work documents on it. Is there just a cable , or system that i can bplug and play into another machine? Also is this comp even worth repairing, have seen on Ebay c521 with no Hard drive but mines the AMD 64 Athlan x2 ( whtever that means ) and the cheapest one on ebay doesn't only looks like a Athlan x1 ( if there is such a thing ) ....whats the differnces???

CHeers
Kieron

Tower unit? Try opening and making sure the mother board hasn't come loose, due to movement etc. similar happened to my compaq and turned out the motherboard came loose when I walked by and kicked it

Cheers Daz,

Had the the connections off to test the Power supply, only goes off when reconnect the 4pin ATX plug. Was on a shelf under the monitor so as far as I know it hasn't moved. It was in standby, wouldn't restart, so turned it off and it just wouldn't come back on. Oh as a side note when just doublechecking it due to Daz's suggestion, something on the board clicks quietly just before it goes off.

Ronnie, the hard drive can be just swapped into a new computor and run as a slave if you wish, so most of the files etc are very safe mate. Also possible, not 100% to run this drive straight into a new computor and m/board..... Skotl will be ya mman for nitty gritty mate..

Hi Ronnie

could be the motherboard or the supply, but most likely the motherboard.

The disk is probably fine and you can certainly, as Lez suggests, plug it into another / new machine and get access to your files. Any programs that you had on it (Office, Photoshop, etc) would not be accessible though, so you would need the original CD/DVD to reinstall them.
Images, vids, documents, etc should be fine.

The only challenge may be if the disk uses an old style connector that may not be present on whatever new computer you buy. That's not the end of the world, though, as you can buy adapters to/from most types of hard disk.

How comfortable are you with the innards? You could buy a new motherboard which, as long as it was roughly the same dimensions, should fit your case. Your existing power supply (assuming it's not goosed) may or may not fit a new motherboard - depends what you're going from and too.
Or are you thinking (as you suggest) of buying a whole enclosure with motherboard, power supply, memory, etc?

Hi Skotl,

Cheers for the reply.

I was really looking at options. The easiest I can see is to get a whole enclosure ( from ebay probably! ). The only thing I can see as an issue is the one I am thinking off doesn't make reference to AMD 64 Athlon x2 , from what I can see of the case it is just a standard Athalon x1 and I don't know if thsi will affect the processing speed, as all I would do is swap over the Hard drive, this would also be by far the cheapest option !
The other option, change the motherboard for a new one, but at £100 or so, for a seven year old comp, not convinced its a wise move. That obviously leaves buying a new comp BUT...i don't want Windows 8 ( only just got used to windows 7 on the works laptop! ) and they all seem to come with it now, plus i don't really have the funds to go out and spend anywhere from £ 200 upwards for a decent comp.

Would I be right in assuming that most computers , when they start running slowly thus would be down to the RAM and processor speeds ( complete wild guess as don't really know a lot about computers! ) . The reason I ask is the Laptop I use at home, sometimes decides it will go really slowly,. I also have access to another desktop that even after completely cleaning it out it still runs really slowly and just wondered what would be causing them to run so badly!

Cheers
Kieron

I have a cable that allows me to connect an IDE hard disk into a USB port and get the info off that way.
You can also get them for SATA discs. Will just depend on what system your computer runs

Quote: ronniecabers wrote in post #6

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...I was really looking at options. The easiest I can see is to get a whole enclosure ( from ebay probably! ). The only thing I can see as an issue is the one I am thinking off doesn't make reference to AMD 64 Athlon x2 , from what I can see of the case it is just a standard Athalon x1 and I don't know if thsi will affect the processing speed, as all I would do is swap over the Hard drive, this would also be by far the cheapest option !

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Quote: ronniecabers wrote in post #6

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...The other option, change the motherboard for a new one, but at £100 or so, for a seven year old comp, not convinced its a wise move.

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Quote: ronniecabers wrote in post #6

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... That obviously leaves buying a new comp BUT...i don't want Windows 8 ( only just got used to windows 7 on the works laptop! ) and they all seem to come with it now, plus i don't really have the funds to go out and spend anywhere from £ 200 upwards for a decent comp.

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Quote: ronniecabers wrote in post #6

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...Would I be right in assuming that most computers , when they start running slowly thus would be down to the RAM and processor speeds ( complete wild guess as don't really know a lot about computers! ) . The reason I ask is the Laptop I use at home, sometimes decides it will go really slowly,. I also have access to another desktop that even after completely cleaning it out it still runs really slowly and just wondered what would be causing them to run so badly!

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Wenn Sie hier auf Links zu eBay klicken und einen Kauf tätigen, kann dies dazu führen, dass diese Website eine Provision erhält.

Bloody hell - for £50 that is an absolute bargain!

You just need to find out whether your old hard drive will fit it. If it looks like this;


then you will likely need Werbung: one of these to convert it to SATA. Don't splurge your £3.99 yet, tho, as your new computer may have a single PATA (the connector in the picture) in which case you can plug it straight in.

One thing I would say is that the 80GB drive that comes with that PC is going to be a bit tight once you've put Windows and Office on it, probably leaving around 30-40GB free. So worth splurging £25 on Werbung: a new 320GB SATA disk

Good luck!

Skotl,

Got the new comp.....Both old and new hardrives are SATA, silly question, whats the best way of getting my old hardrive up and running??

Cheers
Kieron

Depends (as ever!).

Forgetting your original drive for now, does the ebay computer start up? Runs windows and you can log into it?

Yep, New computer up and running, has Windows 7 as the operating system, and can log in fine.

Groovy. Switch it all off then, and pull the lead out of the back (the motherboard still has power even when it is "off") then plug your original disk into what is hopefully a spare SATA socket.

If it only has two sockets then the DVD/CD drive may be in the second one - unplug that for now, then plug your original drive into that slot.

Power on, Windows on, go to "Computer" and you should hopefully see a second drive appear which is your original one.

In the unlikely event you only have a single SATA socket, let us know and we'll come up with a different plan.

Silly question, so I don't have to take the DVD drive out, is there a way I can just connect the old hard drive a s a spare drive and collect the documents /photos/files , as and when needed , or will I have compatibility issues seeing as old is XP and new is 7??

I think you will still be able to 'see' the files and should be able to use them, sure I have heard this before..

There will be no compatibility problems between the XP disk and Win7.

Are there just the two SATA sockets on the board, then? First step is just pull the cable off the DVD and plug it into your old disk and verify everything is ok.
We can figure out a more permanent solution after that.

That's what I thought Lez, but seen these connector type things on Ebay and just not 100% sure which type I need as they all seem to mention different size ( in inches ) disks , and I just haven't got a clue!

Skotl,
yep just the two, and not a lot of room inside the computer either!

Quote: ronniecabers wrote in post #18

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That's what I thought Lez, but seen these connector type things on Ebay and just not 100% sure which type I need as they all seem to mention different size ( in inches ) disks , and I just haven't got a clue!

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It's not so much the drive size, your's will be a large one....hehawhehaw....it'll be the type of interface... SATA, IDE EIDE etc Mr Skotl is our resi' expert for compy things.. I'll be leaving it to him as he knows all the big words....... like UGE...

Kieron - PM sent with me mobile number - probably easier than doing it here

Wenn Sie hier auf Links zu eBay klicken und einen Kauf tätigen, kann dies dazu führen, dass diese Website eine Provision erhält.

Good to talk to you, Kieron.

So, for everyone else's benefit it transpires there is only a single SATA socket inside the PC (the DVD is on some kind of oddball proprietary connector). Your PC is up and running with the supplied disk and you can get into Windows 7, no problem.

The easiest way to get access to the old SATA disk is to put it in a SATA-->USB enclosure like this one, at just over £9 delivered; Werbung: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5-SATA-to-US...=item51a67ba9b4

There are similar items available on ebay and the keywords are; 3.5" disk ("standard size", as opposed to 2.5" laptop size), USB, SATA, Enclosure

You will then simply be able to plug it into your new PC and access the files that are on it. There should not be a problem accessing a WinXP drive from Win7 but there can be problems going the other way, depending what security has been applied. In your case, I don't believe you'll have any problems.

Finally, as discussed, please get into the habit of backing up important docs/pics to USB stick, DVD, etc

Cheers

Good to talk to you too Scott,

Cheers for al the help and advice, much appreciated

Said adaptor has been purchased , so hopefully the wife will get off my back now !

Agree about getting in the habit to back up regularly, thing is the wife even loses the memory sticks , so I'm stuffed either way , might put it on a bit of string attached to the side of the monitor, can't go missing then!

Once again , oh and not forgetting Lez

where else would a member offer advice by phone at 9 at night ?

Cheers
Kieron