A new computer means no virus

[Ha Ha I am OK]

    
    A long time ago, I started a topic where I complained of a virus that my computer had gotten.  Many people gave great suggestions and I tried all of them.  Unfortunately, none of them worked.  So I got a new computer.  It's much better than my old laptop and I'm looking forward to redrawing every single room, character, menu, and whatever else I need for the game  that I was working on.   That's because the other computer doesn't have USB ports (I broke them all) and cannot connect to the internet or a network or write CD's.  

    Does anyone know of a way for me to get anything back?  I have half of my game done and that took me almost 8 months to do.  Please, if anyone can help, I will greatly appreciate it.


[EDIT]  Ok... people have been asking about the USB ports; they're broken physically - one came loose and the other just fell out.  I like the idea of sticking the HD into another laptop (It's a laptop, by the way) that has USB ports and just using that.  I also like the idea of the HD-USB adapters: I think I'll try that first.  Thank you everyone who has replied, you've been a big help.  I'll get back to you if I'm still having problems or if I fix it. 

[rharpe]

You could take the hard drive out of the old computer, slave it in another desktop computer and burn the data you need onto a CD or copy it to a thumb drive via USB. (They have converters for laptop-to-EIDE drives used in desktop PCs.)

Or you could have a professional do it and pay lots of money for it... could be a headache for someone that doesn't know what they are doing.

[Tuomas]

Yeah, where I come from, we usually send them to Norway. No matter how big a problem, they get 85% salvaged, it's amazing, but it's going to cost you. Usually not the option for private users though

[Gilbert]

Usually not the option for private users though

Hehe reminds me of how people here would rather smash their harddiscs to pieces than sending their system to fix or retrieve the data because of some certain incident last year, which has since been brought up to international level.

[jetxl]

I don't think you can just plug in a laptop hd into a computer, but I'm sure there are ways to solve that.
You really should try to fix that usb problem. Is it phisical or virtual broken.

BACKUP YOUR GAMES, PEOPLE!

[Leon]

You don't say if the new one is a laptop or desktop...

There are several ways:

You can connect the laptop harddisk to a computer but you need a special connector for that  (we used them to maintain all field service engineers' laptops). Or do some soldering and take the cable and connector out of the laptop.

You can take the harddisk from the laptop and put it in another (borrowed) laptop that has a burner and or USB port to transfer data. If you have trouble booting from the 'old' disk in your new laptop you can make a CD that contains the complete OS (something like KNOPPIX). You can then access the files on your HD.

If there's a floppy disk on the laptop you can transfer via floppy's. A timeconsuming business but hey, how bad do you want you data?

Another option is, if you have a 25 pinned parallel port (the printer one) to create a NULL-modem cable. You can buy them or create them yourself. A great software tool to transfer the data is TotalCommander which can be used from almost any platform so regardless of the OS on your laptop or PC you can connect them (we transferred from native DOS to Windows2000 once).
This option is also available for 9 pinned serial ports by the way.

If you don't want to go through the hassle, you're not in a hurry and don't mind spending money on the stamps I can transfer the data for you. Just PM me for details.

[Akatosh]

Before you do anything (anything) else, be sure to burn yourself a DVD containing all Windows updates you can get your hands on, as well as some sort of firewall, a different web browser and some antivirus software, from a PC you're fairly sure is virus-free. Connecting to the tubes with a mint OS is a lot like playing Russian Roulette with a shotgun, let alone transferring data from a PC you know is infected.

[Khris]

You broke all the USB ports? What did you do to them...?

There are also adapters to connect 2,5" HDs directly to a USB port. That's probably the easiest solution.

Even if there are infected files on the laptop's HD, you can safely connect it to your new system as long as you don't run any executables off of it. Just copy over the image/ags files.