My main machine is playing up, I have ordered a new one but want to extract
as much old data from the old one as I can. Its a PC running Vista

I have a full back up on an external hard drive. I do not have Vista on disk
its in a partition on the hard drive. I also have a year old mirror copy of
my hard drive but that also is a USB type connection

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be working
normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the USB or card
slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and click on any of the
external slots it shuts down and reboots so I cant do any further back ups.

I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just drop it
into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows coding that is
corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it wont read the USB slots
and "System Restore" doesn't work.

If I didn't want to save the data I could do a destructive restore to the
original but I have never had to restore from a back up and I am not 100%
sure that having done that , that A; it would cure the problem B; that the
restore would result in me seeing exactly what I currently have in front of
me.

Any help would be gratefully received

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be
working normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the
USB or card slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and click
on any of the external slots it shuts down and reboots so I cant do any
further back ups.

I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just drop
it into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows coding
that is corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it wont read the
USB slots and "System Restore" doesn't work.

If I didn't want to save the data I could do a destructive restore to
the original but I have never had to restore from a back up and I am not
100% sure that having done that , that A; it would cure the problem B;
that the restore would result in me seeing exactly what I currently have
in front of me.

The machine is probably OK, but it is more likely to be a hardware
than a software problem. The fact that it crashes is because error
recovery code is broken more often than not.

Firstly, if you have never checked your backups, don't trust them.
You need to check that they can be recovered from and contain the data
you need at intervals, and every time you upgrade your system. But
that's for next time.

What do you mean by card slots, and do you have a CDROM/DVD drive?
If so, the simplest technical approach is to boot a Linux system in
recovery mode, and see what devices are broken. If that's too tricky
for you, you need a competent shop or person to do it for you. Great
skill is NOT needed, but nor are people with Dunning-Kruger.

If it is what I think, it might be possible to replace a component or
add a daughter board - it depends on your machine - and dropping the new
disk into a new machine would definitely work. But it would be better
to copy the disk or get it copied, as disks don't last for ever and
newer ones are bigger.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Charlie Pridham wrote:
My main machine is playing up, I have ordered a new one but want to
extract as much old data from the old one as I can. Its a PC running
Vista
I have a full back up on an external hard drive. I do not have Vista
on disk its in a partition on the hard drive. I also have a year old
mirror copy of my hard drive but that also is a USB type connection

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be
working normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the
USB or card slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and
click on any of the external slots it shuts down and reboots so I
cant do any further back ups.
I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just
drop it into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows
coding that is corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it
wont read the USB slots and "System Restore" doesn't work.

If I didn't want to save the data I could do a destructive restore to
the original but I have never had to restore from a back up and I am
not 100% sure that having done that , that A; it would cure the
problem B; that the restore would result in me seeing exactly what I
currently have in front of me.

Any help would be gratefully received

Try this:
Download and install Superantispyware free.
There is a repair option which includes repair system restore. On this old
XP machine system restore had not worked for years. I used the tool and it
now works fine.
Worth a go?

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:


The machine is probably OK, but it is more likely to be a hardware
than a software problem. The fact that it crashes is because error
recovery code is broken more often than not.

Firstly, if you have never checked your backups, don't trust them.
You need to check that they can be recovered from and contain the data
you need at intervals, and every time you upgrade your system. But
that's for next time.

What do you mean by card slots, and do you have a CDROM/DVD drive?
If so, the simplest technical approach is to boot a Linux system in
recovery mode, and see what devices are broken. If that's too tricky
for you, you need a competent shop or person to do it for you. Great
skill is NOT needed, but nor are people with Dunning-Kruger.

If it is what I think, it might be possible to replace a component or
add a daughter board - it depends on your machine - and dropping the new
disk into a new machine would definitely work. But it would be better
to copy the disk or get it copied, as disks don't last for ever and
newer ones are bigger.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thank you Nick, sounds as if once I have the new machine I should be able to
sort something out.

Card slots, I meant I have a range of card slots on this machine to take SD,
MMC, XD, T-F, MS, and MD cards along with a single USB 2.0, these all sit
where you would normally find the 3.5" floppy, I have two further USB's on
the front and 4 more at the rear , the ones at the rear are straight off the
motherboard and marked "USB Lan", the ones at the front have a different
connection but still plug direct to the mother board, but none will register
any form of extended memory, yet all work fine running a printer, wireless
mouse/keyboard etc.

Its all very vexing, especially as it started after shutting down and moving
the office around (Which wasn't my idea in the first place!)


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 31/10/15 10:48, Nick Maclaren wrote:
On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be
working normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the
USB or card slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and click
on any of the external slots it shuts down and reboots so I cant do any
further back ups.

I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just drop
it into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows coding
that is corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it wont read the
USB slots and "System Restore" doesn't work.

If I didn't want to save the data I could do a destructive restore to
the original but I have never had to restore from a back up and I am not
100% sure that having done that , that A; it would cure the problem B;
that the restore would result in me seeing exactly what I currently have
in front of me.

The machine is probably OK, but it is more likely to be a hardware
than a software problem. The fact that it crashes is because error
recovery code is broken more often than not.

Maybe, but it might be worth running FSC /scannow first to fix any
corrupted system files and see if that cures the problem.

Firstly, if you have never checked your backups, don't trust them.
You need to check that they can be recovered from and contain the dataI thinkI think
you need at intervals, and every time you upgrade your system. But
that's for next time.

Spot on! Maybe the word "Backup" should be banned from computing and we
should only talk about "Restore"...

What do you mean by card slots, and do you have a CDROM/DVD drive?
If so, the simplest technical approach is to boot a Linux system in
recovery mode, and see what devices are broken. If that's too tricky
for you, you need a competent shop or person to do it for you. Great
skill is NOT needed, but nor are people with Dunning-Kruger.

Why not just boot a Linux live CD (eg Ubuntu or Mint) and see if that
can access the hard drive and any USB port? If it can, then just copy
any important stuff from the hard disk to a USB memory stick. No need to
investigate broken devices or try to mend anything if that works. Once
the data has been retrieved, then either try mending what might be
broken or just DBAN the hard drive and dump the PC. As it's a Vista
machine it's probably around 10 years old, and more and more issues of
the sort Charlie has found will occur.

If it is what I think, it might be possible to replace a component or
add a daughter board - it depends on your machine - and dropping the new
disk into a new machine would definitely work. But it would be better
to copy the disk or get it copied, as disks don't last for ever and
newer ones are bigger.

I guess it might be possible to take out the hard drive and put it in a
powered external case with a USB connector, and use another PC to try to
read the disk contents and get anything of value off.

--

Jeff

On 10/31/15 16:52, Charlie Pridham wrote:

Card slots, I meant I have a range of card slots on this machine to take
SD, MMC, XD, T-F, MS, and MD cards along with a single USB 2.0, these
all sit where you would normally find the 3.5" floppy, I have two
further USB's on the front and 4 more at the rear , the ones at the rear
are straight off the motherboard and marked "USB Lan", the ones at the
front have a different connection but still plug direct to the mother
board, but none will register any form of extended memory, yet all work
fine running a printer, wireless mouse/keyboard etc.

That's not quite what I understood, and is somewhat less likely to be a
hardware problem, but that's still plausible. If it were me, I would do
as Jeff Layman says - booting from a Linux live CD is recovery mode (the
alternative is install mode, and you don't want that).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...
My main machine is playing up, I have ordered a new one but want to
extract
as much old data from the old one as I can. Its a PC running Vista

I have a full back up on an external hard drive. I do not have Vista on
disk
its in a partition on the hard drive. I also have a year old mirror copy
of
my hard drive but that also is a USB type connection

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be
working
normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the USB or card
slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and click on any of the
external slots it shuts down and reboots so I cant do any further back
ups.

I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just drop
it
into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows coding that
is
corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it wont read the USB slots
and "System Restore" doesn't work.

First of all you can't just drop your old hard drive with system into a new
computer and think it will boot up from that. It won't do simply because
your new machine will use different drivers, require different registry
settings etc Your system backup is only good for your old machine. You can
add it to your new machine as a second drive and otshould read all the files
on it, but you won't be able to boot from it without doing a re-install on
it and altering the boot file on your new drive.

As far as your old machine goes any backup of data can be transferred to any
machine.So first remove all external memory (cards, drives) reboot your
computer, then stick a flash drive into a USB port (at the back) and see
whether your computer can see that.

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 31/10/15 10:48, Nick Maclaren wrote:
On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:


I guess it might be possible to take out the hard drive and put it in a
powered external case with a USB connector, and use another PC to try to
read the disk contents and get anything of value off.

--

Jeff

I have made a note of the other suggestions.

I do have an external hard drive caddy and yes my lap top reads all the
files fine

I have tried my own recovery disk which boots the machine up but it still
wont do a system restore (although I may try again)

I expect it may seem perverse to want a machine to run on Vista, which
although I much prefer it to windows 8 or 10 I would I know get used to the
latest version eventually! But Vista runs my Label station printer software
which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I can run the
printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500 individual plant
labels.


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

"Frank Booth" wrote in message
...

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...
My main machine is playing up, I have ordered a new one but want to
extract
as much old data from the old one as I can. Its a PC running Vista

I have a full back up on an external hard drive. I do not have Vista on
disk
its in a partition on the hard drive. I also have a year old mirror copy
of
my hard drive but that also is a USB type connection

I am doing this on the machine as it appears in some respects to be
working
normally, but if I connect anything with memory to any of the USB or card
slots it fails to find it and if I open "Computer" and click on any of
the
external slots it shuts down and reboots so I cant do any further back
ups.

I had thought that as the hard drive was still working I could just drop
it
into the new machine but I am now suspecting its the Windows coding that
is
corrupted and I cant restore my back up because it wont read the USB
slots
and "System Restore" doesn't work.

First of all you can't just drop your old hard drive with system into a
new
computer and think it will boot up from that. It won't do simply because
your new machine will use different drivers, require different registry
settings etc Your system backup is only good for your old machine. You
can
add it to your new machine as a second drive and otshould read all the
files
on it, but you won't be able to boot from it without doing a re-install on
it and altering the boot file on your new drive.

As far as your old machine goes any backup of data can be transferred to
any
machine.So first remove all external memory (cards, drives) reboot your
computer, then stick a flash drive into a USB port (at the back) and see
whether your computer can see that.



No it can't see any USB sticks.

I thought the drivers would be on the hard drive not in the BIOS?


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 31/10/2015 22:50, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 31/10/15 10:48, Nick Maclaren wrote:
On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:


I guess it might be possible to take out the hard drive and put it in
a powered external case with a USB connector, and use another PC to
try to read the disk contents and get anything of value off.

--

Jeff

I have made a note of the other suggestions.

I do have an external hard drive caddy and yes my lap top reads all the
files fine

I have tried my own recovery disk which boots the machine up but it
still wont do a system restore (although I may try again)

I expect it may seem perverse to want a machine to run on Vista, which
although I much prefer it to windows 8 or 10 I would I know get used to
the latest version eventually! But Vista runs my Label station printer
software which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I
can run the printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500
individual plant labels.


try win 7

Charlie Pridham
! But Vista runs my Label station printer software
which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I can run the
printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500 individual plant
labels.

Sounds like a case for a virtual machine

"Malcolm Race" wrote in message
...
On 31/10/2015 22:50, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 31/10/15 10:48, Nick Maclaren wrote:
On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:


I guess it might be possible to take out the hard drive and put it in
a powered external case with a USB connector, and use another PC to
try to read the disk contents and get anything of value off.

--

Jeff

I have made a note of the other suggestions.

I do have an external hard drive caddy and yes my lap top reads all the
files fine

I have tried my own recovery disk which boots the machine up but it
still wont do a system restore (although I may try again)

I expect it may seem perverse to want a machine to run on Vista, which
although I much prefer it to windows 8 or 10 I would I know get used to
the latest version eventually! But Vista runs my Label station printer
software which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I
can run the printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500
individual plant labels.


try win 7

That's what I am going to do, our last lap top (nicked by a child) had it on
and that indeed did run everything I needed without too much drama!

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 31/10/15 22:50, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 31/10/15 10:48, Nick Maclaren wrote:
On 10/31/15 10:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:


I guess it might be possible to take out the hard drive and put it in a
powered external case with a USB connector, and use another PC to try to
read the disk contents and get anything of value off.

--

Jeff

I have made a note of the other suggestions.

I do have an external hard drive caddy and yes my lap top reads all the
files fine

That's good news.

I have tried my own recovery disk which boots the machine up but it still
wont do a system restore (although I may try again)

Do try the command sfc /scannow (the space between the "c" and the "/"
is essential) at the console (or dos prompt, or whatever it's called in
Vista). If the machine won't boot properly, try booting into Safe Mode
and trying the command. If the system USB drivers are corrupt, sfc
/scannow may be able to fix them.

I expect it may seem perverse to want a machine to run on Vista, which
although I much prefer it to windows 8 or 10 I would I know get used to the
latest version eventually! But Vista runs my Label station printer software
which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I can run the
printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500 individual plant
labels.

Not at all perverse - in my opinion Win8 and Win10 are to be avoided. I
won't be downgrading my half-dead Win7 laptop to Win10 anyway. As it
happens, I do everything under Linux now.

I'm surprised that you will have to redo the labels. Can't the
manufacturer of the program/ printer help out with any conversion
necessary? Anyway, redoing 3500 labels shouldn't tax you too much. When
I visited Roseland House earlier this year you seemed to have all the
time in the world, Charlie. ;-)

--

Jeff

On 01/11/15 08:25, Robert Harvey wrote:
Charlie Pridham
! But Vista runs my Label station printer software
which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I can run the
printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500 individual plant
labels.

Sounds like a case for a virtual machine

I wondered about that, but remember it is a special program with a
connection to an unusual printer. Under VM. would the Vista printer
drivers work and be able to access the printer port?

--

Jeff

On 01/11/2015 08:25, Robert Harvey wrote:
Charlie Pridham
! But Vista runs my Label station printer software
which neither newer version does without modification, i.e. I can run the
printer on newer software but that means redoing 3,500 individual plant
labels.

Sounds like a case for a virtual machine




Sounds like a dual boot machine (vista/Win 10) might be useful. Don't
know how possible that is mind. I've only ever been able to reboot to
the immediately previous OS, but it allowed me to carry on using
scanners/printers etc for which there were no new drivers.

---
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