Help! Laptop hard drive died

So, my laptop seems to have gone unresponsive. I can’t load up windows 7. Script errors and “missing 2 hdds”
Can’t load safe mode of any sort.

My question is how can I transfer everything to my new computer with this mishap? I’ve got so many plugins, addictive drums, izotope, splat, bandlab etc..

I have a backup hard drive with all files except the most recent song I’ve been working on via bandlab. Up to about a month ago. I really really really don’t want to re record. I was almost done with the song.

My plan is to remove the laptop hard drive which is a seagate I believe and hook it up to my desktop computer via usb and hopefully I can at least access my files and save my most recent work on the song.. one song and it’s files is all I need out of the 400 gigs in use. I’m trying to avoid having the hard drive professionally recovered when their gonna charge to get stuff off I already have. It’s literally probably 2 gigs of that.

Where would I locate the songs folder/data?
“Cakewalk projects”??
Then basically just paste it to my new computer?

What about splat?? Will I still be able to get that back on the new computer??

Hp Pavillion g6 500gig 4g ram

I’m at a loss and will take any help I can get.

Thanks

stevetrusty11

Where would I locate the songs folder/data?
“Cakewalk projects”??
Then basically just paste it to my new computer?

You will probably find your projects there, unless you specified a custom location in "Preferences > Folder Locations".

stevetrusty11

What about splat?? Will I still be able to get that back on the new computer??

You can install Cakewalk Command Center and use that to reinstall Splat.  https://www.cakewalk.com/Command-Center
 
Then use BandLab Assistant to reinstall CbB.  https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk
 
Your 3rd party plugins should be available from their manufacturer's website.  With XLN, you can sign onto your account on the web and install the latest XLN Online Installer, authorize your new computer, install your XLN plugins, etc.  XLN can be installed on two computers.  https://www.xlnaudio.com/install
 
With iZotope, you can install on multiple machines.  https://www.izotope.com/en/support/knowledge-base/installing-and-authorizing-on-multiple-computers.html
 
Other companies may have different requirements.  Celemony Melodyne allows two computers.  Waves is limited to one computer at a time, but you can move your license.  Many do offer only a one or two computer license, so that you will need to release at least one license from the old computer, if all of your available activations are in use.  You will probably need to go through and make a list of all your plugin serials, registrations, and site logins, in case you encounter any activation issues.

Another reason to have a (current) full disc backup (disc image).  With a backup, to an external drive, with a program such as the free and popular Macrium Reflect its a relatively quick task to get a new hard drive configured, even in a laptop.
 
Jack's law:  Backups are not for IF they are ever needed, but for WHEN they are needed.
 

Jack's law, part II:  Don't get jacked!!! 

michael diemer
must be an inside joke.

Ha!  Not really, in the context of Jack's law, don't be Jack!  Simple!

Ok guys. Thank you I appreciate everyone’s info here! Especially jacks law! Lol

My drive isn’t bootable.. I’ve certainly been up and down toms hardware website. As well as a possible way to fix the drive my self, but scared to do so till I try to get my song first..

I have a complete backup of all files on my external hard drive which I’m pretty sure I backed up using acornsis or something of that sort with system image.. just not the most recent song I’ve been working on the last few weeks.. need to meet a dec 12th deadline. worst case I can start over but was trying to avoid it.. it’s mostly the midi I need as I hadn’t got to the audio portion yet..

My intentions were originally to hook the drive via usb to my desktop. Get my most recent save of that song. Put it on my external hard drive. Wipe my failing hard drive clean, or replace it and put everything back on my laptop from the external hard drive..
Well, with fear of my laptop failing again in some way since it getting aged my minds changed..

I just order a cs100 through sweetwater to get me by for now.. it has windows 10. coming from Windows 7.. so this should get real interesting now..

Now I’m going to have to figure out how to transfer these files to a different windows.. as far as I’ve looked into it, it doesn’t look to be easy..
I literally only use my laptop for music and personal music files/music video work. And I still have my win 7 desktop if for some reason I need to use it as my system image restore, THEN move stuff to win 10..

So I guess my question now is, once I download splat/bandlab/addictive/waves/izotope etc to the cs100.
Will I then be able to drag my projects into the cakewalk projects folder and boom all my music/data is now on windows 10?? Or is this a matter of those files only working on windows 7??

Hope this makes sense!
Also, you guys are saying “image”. I used backup software that I believe made a system image besides the most recent song I need. So yes I believe I have that but it’s not gonna help switching to windows 10 now I don’t think??

A system image is not your usual backup. It is an exact copy of your C drive, and is an iso file. It is bootable once you put it on a hard drive. A regular backup is just of your files. Hopefully you do indeed have an image.
 
Going from W7 to W10 does complicate things. By the time you figure out all that you need to do, you might be better off just starting the song over again. Especially with a deadline looming.

So I guess my question now is, once I download splat/bandlab/addictive/waves/izotope etc to the cs100.
Will I then be able to drag my projects into the cakewalk projects folder and boom all my music/data is now on windows 10??

 
Yes.
 
Some points to keep in mind:
 
1. Install your DAW and plugins on your new computer.  If you're going to migrate to a new computer, you will need to install and activate things from scratch.  Restoring your laptop first with a new hard drive via image would get the laptop running again, but would not spare you the pain of migrating things to a new computer.  It would still have a different computer ID even with the same OS.  The best you could still hope for would be transferring your data and projects.  All applications would still need to be installed and activated on the new computer.
 
2. If you have a system image, you should be able to mount the image file on your system as a virtual drive.  No need to restore the image to another drive to get to your backed up data in the image.  Once mounted you should be able to browse and copy just the files & folders you need over to your new computer using Windows file explorer.  Your old Cakewalk projects should just drag & drop into place on your new install of the Cakewalk software.
 
3. If your unbootable C: drive still spins up when attached via USB, you should just be able to copy your latest project files from there.  Hopefully your old C: drive only developed Windows boot errors, and is not physically bricked. 

Another option would be Steve Gibson's spinrite drive recovery utility at grc.com but it costs about $90.  He says it will also prolong the life of drives if you run it periodically, so it might be a good thing to have around.  I've never tried it, instead opting to keep macrium backups.

Getting your current data off the hard drive should be first priority, before you even attempt any repairs, restores, etc.
 
Then using a repair disk. a savvy computer geek could probably use the Windows repair boot to get your system booting again.
 
You probably just boogered up your MBR (master boot record) on the hard drive, and that can be restored using the repair tools in Windows repair disk.

Ok.
Update.

I was able to access my files via usb to my desktop using mini tool. Macrium would not access the files for some reason.
So I’ve recovered my recent song and other valuables.

No I’m ready to fix the boot problem.

In Macrium there’s 4 options if I reset the boot id will that make all my plug ins and programs have to never registered and installed? Plus 3 other options.. they don’t really go into detail what they do..

When using mini tool, everything shows as raw data. Though I was able to get any and every file to do with cakewalk. It’s just for just in case.
I have my image backup.

Can I now hook up my external hard drive with the image to my laptop and restore from the image? Then back to normal? Just put my latest save of my song I found back in my projects folder?

Rebuilding your master boot record (mbr) will only affect the very small software programs that allow your computer to boot. If it works, your computer will boot, and all will be well. If it doesn't, you have a more serious problem. My version of Macrium is old, and I'm not sure how to guide you, other than to study the various options it gives you. somewhere there has to be a way to rebuil your mbr.
 
If you have saved what you need, you can try restoring from the image. That also may or may not work. If it doesn't, once again you have more serious problems.
 
 

Steve,
 
Leave the drive in the laptop OR put it back in. Then load a LINUX DVD into the dvd drive and boot off that loading Lunux as live Linux working off the DVD, dont install it to the harddrive.
 
Once Linux Desktop open, run the file manager app ( similar to Windows explorer ). You might see your drive listed under OTHER. Double click and open. You can copy the content to a USB drive also attached. Linux will pick that drive up too.
 
Best simplest Linux flavour for this .. UBUNTU
 
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
 
Download the ISO and burn on another puter if you can.
 
Always handy to have a Linux DVD for this kind of situation