Windows 7 Disaster Strikes!!!

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi everyone

Well disaster has really struck this time.
for the second time this year we have been struck by lightning!

Last time it only fried my router.

This time it zapped our satalite dish, our phone system, our heating system, our router, our heated outdoor cat shelter, and our electric blanket.

We have several dead circut breakers and this time it got my computer.

The Comcast guy came today and fixed the router, so we have Internet on our iPad and our laptop, the heating guy came and left to order parts, he said we should be up and running in less then a week the dish satellite guy is comming tomorrow along with the electrition.

I fixed the phone system myself by removing a fried cordless phone that was shorting out the system.

Now for my reason for posting.

I'm not sure how to go on my computer.
Here is what it does, when I turn it on, the light comes on I can see it query the hard drives and the DVD drives, the nothing else happens.
I can't access anything.

Just a blank screen, I'm pretty sure the monitor is working, I get the splash screen when I turn it on.

I'm a software person not a hardware person.

Every thing is covered by insurance minus a deductible.

What I'm planning on doing first is getting a USB drive converter and pulling the drives and plugging them into our laptop, if they are readable I will copy anything I don't have backed up to the laptop.

I will check all my external drives tomorrow and make sure they are all readable.

Then I have to get it fixed, somehow.

I don't know anyone around here I trust, so it will have to be send it back to Falcon Northwest, in Oregon, or just order a new one, the insurance company will pay for the repairs.
They will at least split it with me, if I buy a new one. They may pay the whole amount.

I don't have any idea if it's the motherboard, the ram, or some other component and I don't know how to figure it out.

Not being a builder I don't have parts laying around to swap out.

If anyone has any suggestions or input I'd be glad to hear it?

Thanks for any help!

Mike

Written laboriously on my iPad, one letter at a time. Whew!

PS. I would welcome any suggestions on a product best suited to connecting the drives to my laptops USB port, something that powers the drive and converts SATA to USB.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Ouch, that sux. I hope no one was hurt during these two incidents.

You mentioned you had external drives. If you can open the drive casing, you can use the external as a temporary case (that is if the ext has SATA inside) for your other drives.

You might also consider buying an external USB 3.0 case. Who knows you may need another external one day and just so happen to have a drive to put in it. I mentioned getting 3.0 because at this stage of the technical game purchasing USB 2.0, would be shooting yourself in the foot.

When testing your PC, the first thing you want to check is if it will post. Disconnect everything from the motherboard including all but one memory module. If you don't have on-board graphics you will need to keep the graphics card in the system. The system should post a message to the screen without any drives connected. But with them connected, if they have been shorted out they will keep the system from posting.

Good luck with your repairs and may it be a speedy recovery.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Thanks for the help, I think that a USB 3 inclosure is probably the way to go.

I'm leaning toward just ordering a new computer while the insurance company will pay at least part of the cost.

Then I could just plug the old hard drives into the new computer after it is set up, assuming that they are working.

Once I have the harddrives out of the case to test I'll do as you say and see if it will post with just one stick of ram.

Mike

 

[Saltgrass]

Have you tried booting to a DVD, Ubuntu, or even install?

A lightning strike does make it hard to speculate about what might be wrong. But you can eliminate some parts from the equation to see.

As far as the other stuff, are all your ground wires (Satellite, Home, etc.) still in place and functional? Did you have the computer on a UPS?

Looking into a good lighning rod, might be prudent....

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Yes I've tried booting into Ubuntu, and my Windows disk.

I can't get into the bios or anything the lights flash for a few seconds and then that's it.

We've lived here for 27 years I've lost a lot of modems over the years to the point that I started unplugging everything when we had a storm. The cause then was the lightning hitting the phone lines any where in our area but there are no phone lines into my computer anymore.

This year We've been zapped twice, and we are considering a lightning rod.

The computer and router wouldn't have been plugged in if we had been home when the storm hit after the router got fried right in front of me earlier this year I started unplugging everything again.

The electrician is coming today to fix the damaged circuit breakers in the basement along with the dish guy, so I hope we will at least have TV this evening.

The insurance guy said that the lightning didn't actually hit our house, just something near by, maybe the power lines.

We can't find any blasted trees or anything.

The weird thing is how random what got zapped is, none of our digital clocks even reset, and the power was still on except for the damaged circuits, but our electric blanket got fried.

Mike

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi again.

Would this do the job of connecting the drives after I remove them from my computer to my wife's laptop so that I can check them to see if they are readable and later transfer the data to a new computer?

Link Removed

OR....

Link Removed

Or...

Sabrent USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable for 2.5-Inch/ 3.5-Inch / 5.25-Inch Drive with Power Adapter at TigerDirect.com


I've looked at enclosures but at this point I just want to check both drives to see if they are OK or not.

If anyone has any experience with any of these type of things I would like some advice, what I don't want is something that leads me to think the drive is unreadable if it is, in other words I need this to work for sure.

Mike

 

[cliffordcooley]

Would this do the job of connecting the drives after I remove them from my computer to my wife's laptop so that I can check them to see if they are readable and later transfer the data to a new computer?

Sure will, I actually have a device very similar to the item in the third link. The "Vantec Adapter" is the one I have.

Caution though, if the device in the first link does not present enough power, the device may not work if your USB port does not supply enough power to operate the drives you connect to the device. USB 3.0 specifications increased power requirements but USB 2.0 specifications may not supply enough power for SATA drives. This issue is if I'm not mistaken is why they increased the power requirements for USB 3.0 specifications.

 

[helpifIcan]

You might check with the electrician to see what the cost would be of installing a whole house surge protector.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I'll do that, the electrician my nephew.

Mike

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I bought the Apricorn unit, I'll let you know how it goes.
The computer, my new monitor and new surge protectors are all ordered.

Mike