How to back up in safe mode? Help needed please!

I am in desperate need of computer help. I get the blue screen of death every time I turn on my Laptop. I am running vista. I have tried to do a system recovery but it did not work. I have no problem to do the full system recovery where I wipe out the whole pc and bring it back to factory settings.

My big problem is how can I back up my documents and pictures while in safe mode??? As when I try to burn a CD or DVD it says my video card is not compatible. It does not recognize any of my USB ports so I can’t use a external hard drive or USB stick.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Whenever, I get the blue screen of death, I always take it to a professional. Sounds like that's what you're going have to do, to get fixed. They'll be able to save your information. Good luck.

reply to post by lightmere


Not sure how "technically" able you are but this is what I would do...

Grab a linux boot cd/dvd or bootable usb key (make sure you have usb boot enabled in the laptop bios)

I would reccomend hiren's bootcd for having a ton of apps, plenty of file recovery apps as well.

Keep in mind, since it's vista, you'll probably have to take ownership of the files one you bring them to the reformatted PC.

Anyways, step 1, write down the error code from the bluescreen and google it.

You will need to enable legacy USB support in the BIOS google it and you will find instructions

Its a vista blue screen on a laptop
I get them on mine every once in awhile, does it say "Memory dump"?
Chances are your ram may have got knocked out of the slots a little bit and causing your memory to crash, it happens.
To fix it you'll have to take the bottom plates off the laptop and re-seat the ram. That should help you out to get it booted.

reply to post by phishyblankwaters


I will try this right away. I am not that great with computers but i have formatted them before with little difficulties .

What do you mean by take ownership of the files?
I did google the error code; it was so long google did not understand it so i googled the first part of the error codes it was stop 0x0000001e. I have been disabling drivers but still nothing, it also said it could be a virus.
Mostly i just want to back up my stuff and format this baby.
I would like to try to just reinstall windows with the cd but mine did not come with the cd. I do have a XP cd but I don’t believe this will work. DO you know if this would work???

reply to post by lightmere

As you have discovered, safe mode disables most drivers in order to be able to get into windows at all. Backups are probably out of the question. If you can, follow the advice of phishyblankwaters. A Ubuntu CD will also accomplish the same thing, it will let you run it live (meaning not to install it first on your laptop hard drive) and will give you complete access to USB drives and ports. You can then copy your files over to a device of your choice. Good luck!

ETA Try and dump windows vista when you are up and running again. It's a worthless POS. Either "find" Windows 7 online or move to Linux to avoid these kind of problems in the future.

reply to post by trustnothing


I will try this too.
Thanks

tbh if you can fit two HDDs, buy another one change the primary boot disk and reinstall on the new drive. then us ethe new drive as your new backup and new drive and just us ethe old one when you feel you want to, maybe delete some stuff and start using that free space etc

if you cant, you may want to consider a USB HDD dongle adapter, very cheap works great doe sthe same thing as above only as more temporary measure.

HDDs are cheap and having an actual drive as a backup even if a little dodgy is pretty handy.

Just what ive tended to do when old drives with important data on, mess up.


EDIT again: If you just want your files safe then to refortmat, the USB external drive connector thingy is still a great buy, since you can use somone elses mach to move your data across from your borked drive, and then move it again ontop another media sorce, usb key, dvds etc


EDIT: Wrabbit2000 explains what i mean more specificly below.

reply to post by AzureSky


Yes it does say memory dump.
I will also try this.

Thanks

I would try a system restore before a reformat. Could work.

you can download a copy of vista at microsoft or borrow a copy, just be sure you have your product key handy. It is some times pasted to the bottom of a laptop. Just enter your key number when you reformat. .
Another option is to load linux mint or ubuntu in a dual boot configuration, this will enable you to write the vista files you need to dvd ,cd or usb. after you are in linux .
I'm not sure but I thought you could write files in windows while in safemode. Have you tried that

Put your windows disc in and do a repair. you should b ab;e to fix it and not have to worry about backing up anything. And find Driver-genius and update all your drivers after repair.

Thanks everyone for all the advice.

I will get on it right away and try all of these till I get it going.

Sure glad we have more that one computer in the house!

Lightmere, it depends entirely on your level of proficiency and comfort with computers as to how best you can save your data. If you are comfortable with things like changing hard drives and opening cases, then I'd personally remove the laptop drive and plug it into your desktop to treat as any other add-on drive for the purposes of loading the files for backup. Easeus Backup is a free solution I use, but it sounds like you only need targeted things saved.

Anyway... That does two things. It'll remove the issues you're dealing with that caused this all in the first place, while backing up. It will also put that drive into an environment where at least 1 other, larger hard drive is already there to copy things TO. After that, put it back into the laptop and do your factory dump and restore if that is the easiest thing.


If you have no real comp expertise and these files are critical to you, I'd just stop everything until you do have someone over that knows how to safely isolate and backup the drive...or take it to a shop. My two cents.

As stated before your best option is to grab a linux live cd and export the files via usb stick once you login to linux.
There is also an erd commander that should work for vista.
That should get you in and let you see files if I remember correctly.

I would suggest ultimate boot cd for windows. However I'm not certain if that will work with vista. However it's a possibility. I think there is a win 7 version that might be backwards compatible.

All of the above options should get you logged into the pc and give you the ability to transfer files to a usb disc.

Another alternative remove the hard drive to another pc or you can use a external hd kit of some sort to then access the hd via usb.

good luck

You could plug the drive into another computer as most laptop drives are sata and use that system to get access to your files.

double post

Great news everyone!

I managed to get my files all backed up.Took apart 2 lap tops in the process. I just want to say a big huge THANK YOU to all of you for all your help.

Now its time to do a complete restore.

Thanks again everyone.

I don't know if anyone mentioned this... but if you boot into "Safe Mode with Networking" you can use an online backup service. There are some free ones that will let you save a few GB of documents to.