Disaster

[Michael Rolls]

My computer has died. Until you can't use it, it's frightening how indispensable it is. I have a second machine and I back up from the main machine onto an external HDD. Smugly inserted it into the spare machine and it refuses to recognise it! At my wits end

[GrannyMac]

Horrible feeling Mike, sorry I can't help.  Years since I used our desktop, just an iPad these days.  

[klondike]

it refuses to recognise it!

Recognise what? The disk or the backup format? What messages do you see. What does "died" mean exactly.

[Michael Rolls]

The external had simply doesn't show when you select'this pc' just the c drive and the external keyboard the ASUS's own keyboard only acts as an on,off switch.
Witness the DELLswitching on changes the dead screen to one very dark blue but that's all that happens. Tried switching on and numerous times but no joy
I stopped using theASUS about a year ago when I started using the external drive to back up the DELL so I do have some old files I can access but nothing less than a year or so old

[klondike]

You have the disk of the current PC which will, unless it is where the problem lies, hold all your current files.

It still isn't clear to me what happens when
you turn on your main PC
you turn on your old PC
which PC has the dodgy screen

I have no idea which PC is which when you say Asus or Dell
How many screens do you have? If one then it could be that which is bust.

It might be recoverable but not without some clear picture of what is going wrong.

[Michael Rolls]

Sorry to have been unclear.the DELL is my main machi, used every day until Tuesday when in died. The HDD was plugged into it and I backed up onto it every few day. When the DELL died I plugged the external HDD into the ASUS which sits in the office which isn't usually used or even on

[klondike]

So the main machine died and the other machine doesn't recognise the external drive.

Was the external drive plugged in when the main machine failed? If so have you tried without it plugged in?

Does the other machine recognise a USB pen drive? Have you tried different USB ports?

What exactly do you mean by died? What happens?

The thing that sounds odd and could be the common point might be the external USB drive. Definitely so if you just leave it plugged in - if it has failed it could be stopping the main machine booting when plugged in. If the CMOS settings specify try external drive first then normally there is nothing to boot from and the BIOS switches to booting from the internal drive. If that external drive just didn't respond correctly it might  stop the main machine booting and wouldn't be visible on the backup machine.

That all fails if the main machine doesn't boot without it plugged in but it seems coincidental that the drive doesn't work in the old machine.

If the main machine isn't showing anything on the monitor try the other monitor on the main machine (obviously irrelevant if one or both are laptops)

Lastly - check all the cables are plugged in correctly. If the main machine is a laptop is there any indication that the PSU is actually working.

End result - you may need to get it looked at in a PC shop as remote debugging by me isn't likely to show much.