Recovering data from dead SATA HD

Jim Jensen · December 29, 2011, 01:08:04 PM

Quote from: Ian Blundell on December 29, 2011, 12:48:35 PM
The other thing to notice when you are doing the initial setup if you get the standard M$ Office 2010 Home & Office version is that there is a box you need to uncheck otherwise it installs a trial version of Office Professional (that you've already decided you don't need) that will bug your user in 30 days to pay for.

I must have missed that - I successfully ran the activation from the Office Starter link on the Start Menu, but the Office products still show as trial version. When I enter the key from each product (e.g. Word), it runs through the process, then shows a popup screen very briefly - too quick to see anything on it, then closes. It still shows Trial Product after that.

Didn't find anything about this on Dell's website - may have to call. Did you find a way to get rid of the Trial tag? Also found out on Dell's website that a reinstall is accomplished by downloading the trial versions from MS and inputting the Product key to remove the trial tag. May have to go download them to archive to DVD for down the line if they no longer have it avaiable due to moving to 2012 or other later products.

Ian Blundell · December 29, 2011, 04:04:16 PM

If you have a trial version of Office Professional (and an activated version of the standard version) then open Word, click on File and Help. There is an option somewhere on the right to remove Trial Versions and that will get rid of the trial Professional version but leave your standard version.

Jim Jensen · December 29, 2011, 04:19:33 PM

Quote from: Ian Blundell on December 29, 2011, 04:04:16 PM
If you have a trial version of Office Professional (and an activated version of the standard version) then open Word, click on File and Help. There is an option somewhere on the right to remove Trial Versions and that will get rid of the trial Professional version but leave your standard version.

I've got a feeling I'm going to be unhappy with this situation. I still only have 1 installation - trial version, despite running the "install" multiple times after inputting my product key. If I have to set up all of my mail accounts again, I'm going to be quite unhappy.

Mark · December 29, 2011, 04:23:13 PM

save your mail account information before doing anything.

I forget the actual Windows 7 path to your profile, but you want the equivilent of

Code Select

C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Which I think would be

Code Select

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Roaming\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

All I know is that "Roaming" is in there some where, so I'm sure you could Google or even just click around until your find the files. Just save everything that's in that Outlook folder, and once you get things ins order, put those files back.

Jim Jensen · December 29, 2011, 04:27:04 PM

I keep the .pst or .ost file, but that doens't retain the actual mail account setups. Does copy the contacts, mail and calendar events. It'd be really nice if I didn't have to set up my 9 or so different mail accounts each time.

Mark · December 29, 2011, 04:34:41 PM

Grab the other files, too, is what I am saying. there should be an XML file and a SRS file for each profile (which may just be one profile).

They don't appear to be hidden files in XP but maybe they are in 7? Not sure, but those are the files you want. If you were to drop them in that folder on a fresh, never opened, Outlook install, it should open right up like you've never left.

Jeff Golas · December 30, 2011, 10:44:33 AM

What model Lenovo is this? They should have no problems restoring it - the repair depot should have images for everything. I've been very satisfied with Lenovo repair.

You could grab the wpa.dbl file from c:\windows\system32 - then find another slimiar age Lenovo with Win 7 on it, get the product key and use that product key and copy in that file to reset the activation.

I haven't tried it with Win 7 yet but I'm going to have to soon...there's just too much to keep up with anymore.

Jim Jensen · December 30, 2011, 10:57:09 AM

I ended up having to download Office 2010 and installing it again to get past the trial version status. Stunk that I had to, but was minimally time consuming. I didn't have to set up any of the mail accounts again, which was the primary time concern.

Since the warranty tech working on the laptop believes it is the system board and I since I was able to run the HD as a secondary drive in a desktop, I don't think I'll have to worry about reinstalling anything. So as soon as it gets back, I'll be using Magic Jellybean to get the product key and then promptly make some restore disks using DVD instead of a pile of CDs.

<ring>
Just got a message from the tech that it's repaired and HD is fine.

Jim Jensen · January 03, 2012, 04:10:37 PM

Laptop back, no problem with HD. Now I'm trying to get the backup media taken care of it on it and the new WIN7 workstation. I downloaded the Office install program and saved it to DVD. No problem. Windows 7 on the other hand is not so straight foward. Dell says to use their Dell Backup Storage program. Not on my computer. Closest I find is Windows backup option for creating a system image. My laptop took 15 CDs, so this time I opted for DVD. It's asking for #11 so far!!! The really bad part is that you have no idea how big it is - there's no indication - just the insatiable request for more DVDs.