Ripping potential doom wads off a broken dell?

[tinguy]

Hi Doomworld

 

Recently I've been informed by my father and some family members that my uncle (for reasons I wont get into much) has had a number of his possessions dispersed around our family and his ex-girlfriends family for whatever reason, which includes a no-longer-functioning Dell OptiPlex GX200 and Dell OptiPlex 790. my uncle and my dad would make and play doom "wads" in there time in college, believing that he lost these relics a long time ago, but he told me that they might still be on

either of the computers. (im hoping its the 790 considering Ive seen its condition)

 

I dont mess around with doom or dooming modding besides buying Doom 2 on steam months ago.

 

My hope with this situation is that I can take the internal drive out, pray I can finder an adapter, and transfer whatever files onto my pc and release these mods onto archive.org or a doom centered site like this

 

 

Ill keep y'all updated when i hopefully receive the computer, and if there are still files of these mods on his computer.

this is my first time on these forums so please be kind 😭

heres a pic of the 790 my dad sent

[ImproversGaming]

I am feeling some My House vibes building here! If you cannot get the computer to boot on it's own then taking the drive out is quite sensible.

Worth checking where it is failing though. Maybe you could boot from a USB and see what state the drives are it.

However, if you dont want to get into that take the drive out and connect to a working computer. There are loads of adaptors out there for this.

Let us know how it goes.

[ludicrous_peridot]

Oh, and I seem to vaguely recollect something regarding PhotoRec and Doom if you need tools along the way.

 

Oh yes, here it is:

 

 

[Chris Hansen]

Good luck! Hope you can find something interesting in it.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Hiren's Boot CD/USB is my usual go-to for getting into an unbootable PC to fix/retrieve stuff, but I'm by no means an expert.  In my limited experience sometimes just the boot sector is damaged, not even necessarily by hardware failure, but definitely don't run the system more than you need to until you've managed to retrieve what's retrievable, copying any visible files to an external storage should be priority #1, then you can see about doing other checkup/fix on the system itself if you want to.

[Lila Feuer]

Takes me back to seeing what was on old floppy disks I wrote things to 11 years ago (the floppies themselves went back as early as 2003.) Best of luck!

[OniriA]

Wads on floppy disks? Now that's some oldschool shit right there.

 

Hope it doesn't let a rip on you before you attempt to rip on it.

[Lila Feuer]

Nothing that exciting, just cringy writings, MS paint art and sloppy poorman's photoshop edits. 💀

[tinguy]

10 hours ago, ImproversGaming said:

I am feeling some My House vibes building here! If you cannot get the computer to boot on it's own then taking the drive out is quite sensible.

Worth checking where it is failing though. Maybe you could boot from a USB and see what state the drives are it.

However, if you dont want to get into that take the drive out and connect to a working computer. There are loads of adaptors out there for this.

Let us know how it goes.

im still not sure if im receiving both pcs or anything from what my uncle had but im already looking for adapters

tysm

[tinguy]

5 hours ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Hiren's Boot CD/USB is my usual go-to for getting into an unbootable PC to fix/retrieve stuff, but I'm by no means an expert.  In my limited experience sometimes just the boot sector is damaged, not even necessarily by hardware failure, but definitely don't run the system more than you need to until you've managed to retrieve what's retrievable, copying any visible files to an external storage should be priority #1, then you can see about doing other checkup/fix on the system itself if you want to.

I was told that it didnt turn on at all, so i would say bootables are out of the question

for now my plan for when i get the pc is to disconnect the hdd and plug in an adapter. thanks for the advice

[Hebonky]

Take out the hard drive from the dead computer carefully.

Connect the drive to another PC as an external hard drive.

Download and install MiniTool Power Data Recovery (or any other recovery software), and then launch it.

Scan the external hard drive.

Select all needed files and save them in a safe place.

[Hebonky]

To connect it as an external you can just get an external enclosure and plug it in

Like this one on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=asc_df_B00LS5NFQ2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309818716690&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1459015920015887413&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9013142&hvtargid=pla-365069372813&psc=1

 

 

[tinguy]

3 hours ago, Hebonky said:

To connect it as an external you can just get an external enclosure and plug it in

Like this one on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=asc_df_B00LS5NFQ2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309818716690&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1459015920015887413&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9013142&hvtargid=pla-365069372813&psc=1

 

 

thanks for the link ive been trying to find a safe adapter off ebay but I believe this is better

[Finnisher]

Ooh this is super neat hope you manage to recover some wads!

 

Yes def best to take the drive out and inspect it with another computer. You don't want to risk losing everything to a bad power supply ruining the system etc.

 

The 790 seems to use SATA drives by spec so you can just plug them in to the SATA ports on your own computer's motherboard.

 

The GX200 uses IDE or SCSI drives so you'll need a suitable adapter for example IDE to SATA

Hoping IDE since SCSI is always trickier to worth with.

 

Also you don't need data recovery software if the drives are still readable.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Finnisher

[Dark Pulse]

As others have suggested, probably the best way to go would be a cradle/dock that would let you plug a regular internal SATA hard drive into something that could be hooked up via USB to a different PC.

 

If the drive won't spin up or register, the drive itself is dead and at that point you'd be looking at a data recovery service to see if you could get the data off it, but if it does, then it's just a matter of searching the drive for the files.

[DoomGater]

On 11/4/2023 at 7:38 AM, tinguy said:

 he told me that they might still be on

either of the computers. (im hoping its the 790 considering Ive seen its condition)

 

 

I don't want to spoil the fun, but what exactly leads you to the assumption, that there might be useful or interesting files?

[tinguy]

17 hours ago, Finnisher said:

Ooh this is super neat hope you manage to recover some wads!

 

Yes def best to take the drive out and inspect it with another computer. You don't want to risk losing everything to a bad power supply ruining the system etc.

 

The 790 seems to use SATA drives by spec so you can just plug them in to the SATA ports on your own computer's motherboard.

 

The GX200 uses IDE or SCSI drives so you'll need a suitable adapter for example IDE to SATA

Hoping IDE since SCSI is always trickier to worth with.

 

Also you don't need data recovery software if the drives are still readable.

ohh if its SATA I might actually have one around my house

ty

[tinguy]

3 hours ago, DoomGater said:

 

I don't want to spoil the fun, but what exactly leads you to the assumption, that there might be useful or interesting files?

ill have to ask my dad on what the computer(s) actually have on them

he said there were some personal files like photos, files for work and that type of shi

he went on for a while on the phone about the doom files they made and shared with eachother just kind of blabbering about it

but more if in a sad manner almost like he misses him or something, to really answer your question Ill have to ask him if he knows for sure about the files really being there

otherwise this post will just be burried, ill make another post when i get more info about it.