How do I back up a defective hardrive on a Netbook with no optical drive?

Hello, it looks like somehow the master boot record was erased from the hard drive, maybe viral? You mentioned the hard drive was recognized in the bios correct? If you need data from the hard drive the easiest way would be to pull the hard drive out and use an external hard drive enclosure to remove the data before you erase everything from the hard drive. If you dont need anything thing you can proceed to do a new install of Windows 7. Turn the computer on then hold alt and the f10 key to perform a factory recovery. This will erase everything and reinstall Windows 7. If this doesnt work then you will need a new hard drive and a bootable usb drive with Windows 7 on it. Hope this helps.

try it on another computer if that dosent work you should
reformat your computer but first backup all your data by putting your another internal hardrive on your computer and move all your files you need to the empty hardrive and after that take the hardrive with all your stuff in it off the computer and then reformat the hardrive which the external hardrive does not work on and install a new operating system then put the other hardrive with all your stuff back on your computer and transfer your stuff into the hardrive with a operating system then try the external hardrive

OR
you can burn all your stuff into a CD or a DVD
OR
you can put all your stuff into FlashDrives and then after you reformat the hardrive with an operating system put your stuff back into the computer and after that the external hardrive should work

Ive done a few dell mini notebooks and this problem was always corrupt hardrive or the hardrive died. Solution take hardrive out plug it as external into another pc see if it spins up and you see it show up on pc. If it does then itll be just corrupted and will need windows reinstalling. If it doesn't youll need another hardrive itll be dead. There not expensive depending on what size you wanting. Hope this helped.

It means the eject botton is not functioning, maybe the botton is not contacting the appropriate function.
Try and open My Computer or Computer from START botton and then right click on the Disc-R to select eject and you will find it open immediately.

Hi there,

There are three basic solutions for installing software on a netbook without an optical drive:

1. Share the Disc Over a Network

Required: A network, and a PC with an optical drive
This solution essentially shares the optical drive in one PC over a network to your Netbook. For most this is the easiest method because most users these days have a network readily available, and assuming there's a network there's likely a PC with an optical drive connected to it.
First you need to load the CD/DVD into the optical drive in the PC. Now go to My Computer and right click on the drive with the loaded media, click properties, navigate to the Sharing tab (note if you haven't done this before it may give you a warning that you shouldn't do this unless you know what you're doing, click the message to continue). Check the Share this folder on the network box, give it a name of your choice and hit OK.
From this point forward any computer on your network will be able to access the shared drive. If this is a problem be sure to follow the steps above and uncheck Share this folder on the network, to take it off.
Now, make sure your Netbook is connected to the network (this works wirelessly or through ethernet wired connection). Access My Network Places, and click Add A Network Place, use the wizard to add the optical drive you selected to share.
Now that it is shared you should be able to access it from My Network Places at any time (when your Netbook is connected to the network), and it should automatically refresh if you switch the CD, if it doesn't do a right-click, and hit refresh and the files should update. If you are trying to install software and are used to auto-run, double click the Setup.exe file or similar to begin installation.

2. Use an External Optical Drive (can be a bootable disc)
Required: External optical drive
External optical drives are the easiest way to use CD/DVD media and install software to your Netbook. It is however the most expensive option.
External drives are very simple; just plug it into an available USB port. Your Netbook will automatically detect the drive and simply add it to My Computer just like a built in drive. Some drives will even run power through the USB, while this makes them more mobile it eats up your Netbook's battery faster, if that is a problem other external drives do require a power outlet for use but should not drain your battery.

3. Create an Image (not bootable)
Required: Image making software (like Alcohol 120% or VirtualDrive), image emulation software (Alcohol 120% includes one, Dameon Tools is another, or Power Iso), access to a computer with an optical drive, and a method to transfer a large file from that computer to your Tablet PC.
You will need to use your particular software User-Guide for most of this process. What you do essentially is use software to create an exact copy of the CD in the form of a file (normally a .iso) that has to be read by an optical drive emulator which then can access the CD as if it were being read by a real optical drive. The biggest disadvantage to this method is that CDs can run around 700mbs, DVDs around 4gbs... transferring files of that size, even over fast networks, can be tedious. A benefit however is you can carry important CDs (as files) with you as you go, so for example if you need to install Microsoft Word content to use some feature while your in a meeting, you can do so without having the physical CD with you... This however of course requires heavy disk space since the CD file tends to be around 700mbs.

Hope this helps.

Hi. You may need to re-install the Operating System but your netbook doesn't have an Optical drive. Better call Dell Phone Support for help in how to recover system back to factory image.

^_^

You will need two items in order to bring up the Recovery Console on the netbook, an external dvd drive and an operating system disk that came with another computer (brand doesn't really matter). Before inserting the disk, connect the external drive and turn it on. Then, turn on the netbook and press F2 to go to Setup. From that screen, you will need to change the boot sequence to boot first from the external drive you've connected. Press F10 to save changes and exit. Put the operating system disk in the drive and reboot the netbook. The disk will start automatically loading files and will eventually stop at point where it will ask if you want to access the Recovery Console. Do this and follow the program step by step. At the end, you will type exit at the C prompt, remove the disk and reboot. Hopefully, you will have addressed whatever missing or corrupted file and the computer will start normally. If this works, disconnect the external drive and go back to the Bios to reset it to start from the hard drive. Hope this helps or, at least, gets you on the right track.

try to use another usb cable for your external dvd drive>>>> then if it's not working again try to check the bios setup if the optical drive is enable. if the setting is disable please change it to enable>>> if still not work back on where did you bought it>>> maybe it is defective...

Dear johnls,
Try to copy the installation CD to a flashdisk the run the installation from flashdisk when you connect it via USB jack on your netbook.
Or try to connect the external Optic Drive (CD/DVD ROM), wait until the netbook complete the installation of your optic drive. Restart your netbook with external CD ROM connected via USB jack, then run the 3G installation from your External CD ROM.

GoodLuck!

Best regards,
bionic23