My HP Media Center PC will not reboot after being unpowered

[kampy1975]

4 years ago, we lost power on our HP Media Center PC.  I recently decided to attempt a recovery of the files.  After researching different ways to get it to turn on again, I discovered a solution that involves blowing a hair dryer into the power supply on the back of the computer......it worked!

But instead of connecting my external hard drive, to begin the process of recovering all of our old photos/files, I received a message on my monitor that states "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".

I did more research, and attempted the following solutions:  1) Re-set my "boot device priority" to ensure my hard drive was the "first boot device priority".  2) Opened up my computer to ensure all connections were clean and secure.  My next solution was going to be a "system recovery", but I'm afraid I will lose my files if I attempt it.

Does anyone have any other solutions, or opinions as to what may be going on?  After successfully getting it to power on again, I can not see anything on my monitor except for this message.  I'm sorry, I can't remember which version of Windows we were running at the time it stopped working.  If it's not possible to get this old computer running again, is there a good option for pulling the files straight from the hard drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much!

Thomas

[TheOldMan · Accepted solution]

If the files are still on the hard drive, then best way to retrieve them would be with another PC that works.  Use a USB  to SATA/IDE adapter to connect the hard drive to a working PC.  Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/AGPtek-Drive-Adapter-Converter-External/dp/B00BIE996S/ref=pd_sim_147_4?_encod...

That will power the drive independent from the USB power and if the files are intact, then you can move them to a different media, IE: DVD, flash drive or another hard drive.

[PeaceLily]

Hi @kampy1975,

First you might try resetting the boot order to default settings in BIOS.

Given the error you're getting and the solutions you've tried, there's a chance your hard drive might be bad. If you want to spend a little money and try to recover your files just in case the drive is still good, you could buy an external hard drive enclosure. They're not very expensive, $10-20 I think. Pop out the hard drive, put it in the case and connect to another computer via USB to copy over your files. I did this with my parents' old desktop computer that would no longer boot up, and with a friend's laptop that was totally dead, and it worked perfectly in both situations.

[kampy1975]

Thanks "the old man", I just purchased the device you suggested. Hopefully the HD is still good, and this plan will work.

[kampy1975]

Peace Lily, thankyou. I hope the hard drive isn't bad. Based on the feedback I've gotten, I decided to attempt a recovery straight from the hard drive. It's a shame I couldn't get the PC going again, but as long as I can retrieve the old files I'll consider it a victory. Fingers crossed!

[HBunn]

 Hi OldMan (Dean),

Yes, this was the exact statement. In fact, the entire statement when I ran a diagnosis was:

Boot failed, read verify error occurred at sector 8325120 (Reason: Uncorretable Data Error) 

Linear verify failed, SMART Self-Test Short failed. I was hoping to use the USB to SATA adapter to retrieve my files.

I tried to respond earlier, message box full. Hopefully this message will take.

HBunn

[TheOldMan]

That does not bring much hope to the situation.  Go ahead and try to use the method described in this thread to retrieve any data.  The hard drive has failed.  Whether it will allow any data extraction is questionable.

If that does not yield any files then the last ditch effort would be to try a non-Windows OS to attempt file retrieval.  Boot the hosting PC into a  Linux Live CD.  That is what I normally use to make the attempt.  Ubuntu or Knoppix are good choices.

[HBunn]

OldMan (Dean), Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I will try the first and if not successful then I will try the Linux. I am hopeful that something works. 

HBunn