Backing up your data

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

My attempt to use Windows 'create image' didn't work in my attempt to transfer everything on my old laptop hdd 'directly' to my new hdd. There is also a 'Windows Easy Transfer' program that might be capable of doing it, but again not in a direct manner.

So I did some research on line and downloaded Macrium Reflect which is free for just the basic program. It's about 60% through the process now.

After this, I'll replace the small ssd it uses for cache.

Windows Easy Transfer will only pick up folders that are stored with your user profile (Documents, Music, etc.). If you create your own folders off the root of the hard drive, it will not pick it up.

Macrium Reflect looks legit. Let us know what your experience with it was like.

[Scruffydog777]

After a 3 week delivery time from China, I replaced the motherboard on my Lenovo Y510P. There were some hiccups, but it's up and running fine now.

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

After a 3 week delivery time from China, I replaced the motherboard on my Lenovo Y510P. There were some hiccups, but it's up and running fine now.

You swapped out a laptop motherboard on your own? Not an easy task!

[Scruffydog777]

I thought it was going to be a very tough job, but the hardest parts were removing the keyboard from the bezel, then the bezel from the frame. They are tight fits and you have to bend the plastic, almost to the point of braking.

But I found a pdf file on line and a few youtube videos on my exact model that made the rest of it fairly simple.

But I did make one mistake that cost me half a day. When putting in the process, there is a fastener that you turn fully counter clockwise to remove it. When putting it in the new mb, it's capable of rotating 180 degrees, but I saw there was a tab that when I turned it 90 degrees, it was evenly engaged in a slot that runs along side the cpu, so I felt that was where it should be. I put the rest of it together and it wouldn't boot.

I suspected maybe one of the ribbons wasn't fully engaged, but I had the cpu fastener in the back of my mind. After all the ribbons checked out okay, I looked at the YT videos that I had consulted so much for the rest of the process and it says to turn it fully the other way. When I did that, I noticed the cpu does move laterally when you do it so it must not have been making good enough contact the first time around.

Live and learn!

[Bamagirl]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Interesting story CleverCowboy.

I remember my father in law at the time, lived in Atlanta where they have numerous thunderstorms. He had a very capable surge suppressor on the power line to his computer, but not to the telephone line I believe it was at the time and a lightning strike nearby, fried his computer.


Many years ago, again my at the time father in law gave us a laptop he had used for years. The battery lost it's ability to hold a charge but we were still able to get quite a bit of use out of it with it plugged in. One day we noticed a burning smell coming from it and found out part of it where the battery was had melted. I guess what happened is the state of the battery kept deteriorating to the point where it was short circuiting the charging circuit. But luckily we noticed it in time and we took the battery out and were still able to get a lot of use out of it. But I wonder what would've happened if we had been away when this happened.

Could it have started a fire? I don't think so, but I have an old laptop that I keep my DC hub files on and the battery in it has lost it's ability to hold a charge and the laptop won't power up without it, so I have to leave it in to power it up and it is because of that incident years ago that I'm reluctant to leave it running if I'm not home.

After reading all of this I am now going to unplug my laptop every night! I hadn't been doing that...but I think I'd rather be safe than sorry!

[CleverCowboy]

I limit myself to component upgrades these days - cards or memory that fit in a slot, and I'm done. I did a laptop screen replacement five years ago and it was a pain.

Back in the early days, I liked to build systems from scratch just because. There wasn't a lot of standardization, so often getting the motherboard into the case without breaking it was a real chore, only to find that the posts did not exactly line up with the motherboard screw holes. Even when the screw holes were right, there was always those one or two that are impossible to get to with a normal screwdriver because a piece of metal was in the way. I kept dropping the tiny screws into the bottom of the case and would have to fish them out with needle nosed pliers. Many a swear word was uttered.

So glad I ended up in software and not hardware!