Fiance's laptop for vet school suddenly not working; please help!

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Enresshou

Enresshou

Hey, everybody,

So my fiance's laptop for vet school (an Asus X401a loaded with Windows 7) randomly decided to start giving us issues. Specifically, while Google Chrome loads fine and we can access websites, any time we try to load a window (i.e. Control Panel, My Computer, attach files to an e-mail) it either loads EXTREMELY slowly (on the order of minutes) or not at all. Compounding this issue is that she has a lot of notes and information from her first semester on this laptop, and that it no longer recognizes any USB flash drives or HDDs that we plug into it. We've managed to get a couple files attached to an e-mail and mailed it to ourselves, but now we can't do even that.

So far I've tried starting it up in safe mode (same issues), defragged the C: drive, and did a "clean" startup (went into msconfig and did a bare-bones startup); all of these have left the computer with the same issues. I don't think it's malware or an issue with a program; the only things I can think of are an issue with Explorer or a hardware issue.

Does anybody have any thoughts/ideas on what the issue might be; and/or how to get these files off the computer? We're still covered under our Asus warranty, but we need that off the laptop. Thanks all!
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

If the contents of the laptop are more important than anything else, you should probably extract the hard drive and mount it in an enclosure/on a sled and connect it to another computer long enough to rescue all of your important data. Once your important data are safe, then you can spend time worrying about further troubleshooting.

--Patrick
 
evilmike

evilmike

To get the data off, you could probably boot into linux from a CD or a thumb drive. Then you can then copy the data where you need it.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

evilmike said:
To get the data off, you could probably boot into linux from a CD or a thumb drive. Then you can then copy the data where you need it.
Click to expand...
This is also reasonably good advice, if you are at all comfortable working in a non-Windows environment.
I would like to add that part of the reason for trying to use the drive outside of the computer is not only to rescue the data, but also because it is a troubleshooting step that should let you know whether the drive itself is faulty. If you "sled" a drive and you still have trouble using it, that makes it more likely that the drive is your main culprit, but if the drive performs flawlessly when it is not inside the computer, then you need to look elsewhere for the cause.

--Patrick
 
strawman

strawman

If you're still in or around Ann Arbor I can remove the drive and copy stuff off it for you, assuming the drive isn't the problem.
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

Hey, everyone,

Sorry for the delay; I've been busy over the past couple days (including trying several recommended fixes), but no luck so far. Stienman, I'd love to take you up on your offer; I just need to call Asus and double-check that taking it out won't violate the warranty (the laptop's only 3 months old, while the warranty's good for a year). I'll be in touch; and thanks again, everyone!
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

If, like most laptops, it has a hard drive access door on the bottom, then it will be very difficult for ASUS to even tell that it has been removed (unless they use tamper stickers or something), but most manufacturers specifically leave the hdd/RAM as consumer-replaceable parts, if only because it means they can just ship fresh memory/drive to the customer and let him do the work rather than shipping the entire computer back and forth.

--Patrick
 
strawman

strawman

Enresshou said:
Hey, everyone,

Sorry for the delay; I've been busy over the past couple days (including trying several recommended fixes), but no luck so far. Stienman, I'd love to take you up on your offer; I just need to call Asus and double-check that taking it out won't violate the warranty (the laptop's only 3 months old, while the warranty's good for a year). I'll be in touch; and thanks again, everyone!
Click to expand...
It will very likely violate the warranty. The user manual states that the hard drive should only be dealt with byan authorized service center, and as this video demonstrates you have to completely disassemble the laptop to get to the memory and hard drive. It's not meant to be user replaceable:




User manual:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/X301A/E7169_eManual_X301A_Z104.pdf

So your best bet, if you want to keep the warranty, is booting it up with a thumb drive or CD and then copying files over.
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

Hey, stienman,

I actually called the Asus customer support hotline earlier today. They told me that, as long as we don't damage the laptop, it won't violate the warranty. I was surprised as well (and slightly suspicious; but I'll call them back again...).

Also, we've tried booting it up and copying files over. Windows explorer runs at a snail's pace, then completely freezes and restarts whenever we try to open a window; it doesn't recognize any USB sticks plugged into it, and our other recourse (attaching files to e-mails) has worked maybe one time in ten.
 
strawman

strawman

Enresshou said:
Hey, stienman,

I actually called the Asus customer support hotline earlier today. They told me that, as long as we don't damage the laptop, it won't violate the warranty. I was surprised as well (and slightly suspicious; but I'll call them back again...).

Also, we've tried booting it up and copying files over. Windows explorer runs at a snail's pace, then completely freezes and restarts whenever we try to open a window; it doesn't recognize any USB sticks plugged into it, and our other recourse (attaching files to e-mails) has worked maybe one time in ten.
Click to expand...
I'm game if you are, though the symptoms make me wonder if the hard drive isn't bad. Won't know until we take it out though.

Let me know.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

One more thing, Enresshou ... if the hard drive really is going bad, you want to use it as little as possible between now and whenever you decide to go after your data. The more you use a dying drive, the more likely you will be to lose more data.

--Patrick
 
Eriol

Eriol

And boot it up NOT in windows. From a USB thumb drive with Linux on it or something, then copy stuff, or email it to yourself on google or something. Don't boot windows itself. If you're hazy on how to do that... well, I'd need to google around on some FAQs on that. Maybe somebody else here could help in a more brief way.
 
strawman

strawman

I usually take the drive out, hook it up to a USB <--> SATA converter, and attach that to a mac. No significant danger of my system infecting the drive and vice versa.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

stienman said:
I usually take the drive out, hook it up to a USB <--> SATA converter, and attach that to a mac. No significant danger of my system infecting the drive and vice versa.
Click to expand...
Plus you don't have to worry about corrupting the drive since the Mac will refuse to write anything to the NTFS drive (unless you have special software installed).

--Patrick
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

Hey, everyone,

Thanks for the advice and the help. We've been able to recover some of her data/notes by e-mailing it to ourselves (the laptop's worked well enough for that...), but apparently Asus contracts with Best Buy to fix computers on-site. Thanks again for all the help; this'll teach us to not keep coursework and notes on only one computer/storage device...

-Josh
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Enresshou said:
Hey, everyone,

Thanks for the advice and the help. We've been able to recover some of her data/notes by e-mailing it to ourselves (the laptop's worked well enough for that...), but apparently Asus contracts with Best Buy to fix computers on-site. Thanks again for all the help; this'll teach us to not keep coursework and notes on only one computer/storage device...

-Josh
Click to expand...
Evernote and/or Dropbox are your friends.
 
ncts_dodge_man

ncts_dodge_man

Never leave important data in only one location. Backup, backup, backup!

Use whatever you want (carbonite, Evernote, Dropbox, etc)

I'm personally using MiMedia. It gives you 7 GB of data storage free - I'm using it to back up all of my son's pictures from birth through now and anything else that cannot be replaced.
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

Yeah; I told her this after the fact (I make sure all my science data is saved in no less than three locations...), but it still happens. Thanks for the heads up on the storage sites!
 
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