Dead HD

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Mar 25th, 2002, 08:13 PM
Muddy

Dead HD

When I try to boot from my Hard Drive I get a blinking white unerline cursor and nothing else (it does go tthrough the "press F2 to ... screen ok).

I had other hardware problems previously and transfered this HD to another PC where it was working well for some time until I started getting some kind of odd "ethernet problems ... check cable" erorrs then the boot problem I mentioned above. I go the original machine working and put the HD back in it with the same no boot problem.

THis is a laptop running Windows XP Pro.

How can I get my data back?

Thanks for any help!
Mar 25th, 2002, 09:06 PM
Gimlin

Stick in a boot disc (98 is the best) and see if you can access the HD from dos.
Mar 25th, 2002, 10:16 PM
Gandalf_Grey_

if your hard drive IS dead (which i doubt from the explanation that it is) then put it in the freezer (it actually works), check your IDE cable make sure there is no dust in there. The boot sequence wouldn't detect my hard drive once i couldn't do anything, then after like 120 minutes of trying to get the hard drive to be detected, i finally gave up and watched TV. about half an hour later i came back, full of new ideas to get it working, then it mysteriously worked again, but for some reason it still won't be detected as a hard drive, it is currently detected as an auxillary boot device. I don't know it really isn't bothering me that way and if the bios wants to make it an auxilary boot device instead of a hard drive it is fine by me :p
Mar 26th, 2002, 08:20 AM
Muddy

unfortunately i am also having keyboard problems on my laptop.

is it possible to connect a laptop hard disc drive to a desktop computer? How can this be done?

Thanks for all the help so far!
Mar 26th, 2002, 08:35 AM
JungleMan

Quote:

Originally posted by Muddy
unfortunately i am also having keyboard problems on my laptop.

is it possible to connect a laptop hard disc drive to a desktop computer? How can this be done?

Thanks for all the help so far!

Yes, there's a converter sold to do so..
Mar 26th, 2002, 10:25 AM
numtel

you can get the 44pin to 40pin adapter at fry's
Mar 26th, 2002, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf_Grey_
if your hard drive IS dead (which i doubt from the explanation that it is) then put it in the freezer (it actually works), check your IDE cable make sure there is no dust in there. The boot sequence wouldn't detect my hard drive once i couldn't do anything, then after like 120 minutes of trying to get the hard drive to be detected, i finally gave up and watched TV. about half an hour later i came back, full of new ideas to get it working, then it mysteriously worked again, but for some reason it still won't be detected as a hard drive, it is currently detected as an auxillary boot device. I don't know it really isn't bothering me that way and if the bios wants to make it an auxilary boot device instead of a hard drive it is fine by me :p

putting a hard drive in a freezer? what do you accomplish by doing this?

nothing from what I can tell. it doesn't have a battery in it. it is all hardware.

that is pointless in my eyes.

muddy, can you get to it by a flopy boot disk?
Mar 26th, 2002, 12:18 PM
Muddy

Quote:

Originally posted by scoutt

putting a hard drive in a freezer? what do you accomplish by doing this?

nothing from what I can tell. it doesn't have a battery in it. it is all hardware.

that is pointless in my eyes.

muddy, can you get to it by a flopy boot disk?

yes i can boot my laptop via floppy, but the "C" key (among others) doesnt work on the keyboard, so I am unable to try to access the HD this way.

I was thinking of trying to install the laptop HD in my desktop and trying to access this way. Wuld this stand a chance of working?

Thanks for the help everyone!
Mar 26th, 2002, 01:02 PM

Is that simply a keyboard fault? a replacement keyboard should be pretty cheap.
Mar 26th, 2002, 01:19 PM
Muddy

Quote:

Originally posted by Behemoth
Is that simply a keyboard fault? a replacement keyboard should be pretty cheap.

no ... the drive behaved the same in a friends laptop. I no longer have access to a laptop to try it in again.

sooner or later i will fix the laptop, but for now i need the data off this hard drive.

thanks!
Mar 26th, 2002, 01:28 PM

there are companies that can retrieve data from corrupted disks, but its not cheap.
Mar 26th, 2002, 02:24 PM

Jez Gandalf some of these kids don't know nothing. Hard disks heat up and change temp for christ sake. Have also used the freezer approach to get a drive working, then backed it up and trashed it. On the opposite side of that, had a drive recently which wouldn't behaviour, left the machine alone and booted for a weekend, and boom baby started working.

How old is the drive....size etc....

If you are near one of those hole in the wall computer stores, the two man operation sort of place, lob the whole thing into them and get a quote. Now this is the sneaky part, buy something to add to the computer, they will generally fix your problems for the price of the upgrade. ;) That's how they do it downunder anyway, probably figure if they offer the service you'll keep using them.

Sounds like your laptop needs a good service anyway. Problem with laptops is it can get expensive to maintain them if a name brand.
Mar 26th, 2002, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jethro
Jez Gandalf some of these kids don't know nothing. Hard disks heat up and change temp for christ sake. Have also used the freezer approach to get a drive working, then backed it up and trashed it. On the opposite side of that, had a drive recently which wouldn't behaviour, left the machine alone and booted for a weekend, and boom baby started working.

Jethro, I never had a hard drive heat up that bad where I couldn't wait for 10min instead of putting it in the freezer.. if it was that bad then it was probably trashed anyway.
Mar 26th, 2002, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by scoutt

Jethro, I never had a hard drive heat up that bad where I couldn't wait for 10min instead of putting it in the freezer.. if it was that bad then it was probably trashed anyway.

Exactly, old support method of trying to extract data files....works too....in some cases. Other method is too connect outside case and put a large fan on and pointed at it...

If you rip up the lid on your rig right now and feel your hard drive...that just has to get some flack....you will notice it has heated up, currently pc has three fans installed, including one on the vid card....
Mar 26th, 2002, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jethro
Exactly, old support method of trying to extract data files....works too....in some cases. Other method is too connect outside case and put a large fan on and pointed at it...

If you rip up the lid on your rig right now and feel your hard drive...that just has to get some flack....you will notice it has heated up, currently pc has three fans installed, including one on the vid card....

:D only if I am looking at the porn sites :p

sure they get hot, but not that hot to where you had to put them in the freezer, but I will take you word for it as I have heard some wierd stuff that user have done.
Mar 26th, 2002, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by scoutt

:D only if I am looking at the porn sites :p

sure they get hot, but not that hot to where you had to put them in the freezer, but I will take you word for it as I have heard some wierd stuff that user have done.

Well go and put your hard drive in the freezer before it over heats:D

PC Support thank you....and the technique works.....tsk and you think when you drop your PC in for repair weird stuff doesn't happen to it......... my all time favourite is checking out the web links ppl have on their PCs, and if way weird, bringing it up in a loud voice......hehehehehehehehe
Mar 26th, 2002, 03:57 PM

now that I do, some funny crap out there that people have.

I do work work on PC's as I am a Computer Support Technician for the county I live in. so my computer never leaves my side. ;)
Mar 26th, 2002, 04:05 PM

Cool....

We just installed a 40gig replacement drive in this guys machine cause he claimed his existing hard disk was corrupted and needed replacement. Tried to tell him that a low level format would fix the problem, no actual disk corruption, but he knew all the answers so what the hey....

Can't wait till he comes back in, we are talking porn sites on mass here. Have printed up all the site names in twenty pitch to wave around when he walks in....hehehehehehehe...just so he doesn't loss any of em you understand;)

Will actually miss help desk support at the end of next week:( Those guys have all the fun....back to project management for me...
Mar 26th, 2002, 05:25 PM
Muddy

Quote:

Originally posted by Gimlin
Stick in a boot disc (98 is the best) and see if you can access the HD from dos.

OK ... I got a USB keyboard, booted on the floppy and ...

typed in c: and ...

"invalid drive specification"

:(

Any ideas?
Mar 26th, 2002, 05:40 PM

can try fdisk /mbr at the a prompt.

other than that say adios to that drive as it either has nothing on it or it decided to go on strike.
Mar 26th, 2002, 08:51 PM
Muddy

well ...

I downloaded some recovery software that only found a few worthless files.

I am giving up and formatting the drive now :(

Thanks for all the suggestions
Mar 26th, 2002, 11:02 PM
Muddy

The drive formatted OK,
Got all my software installed.

But can I ever trust this drive again?
Should I just buy a new one?

any opinions?
Mar 27th, 2002, 07:50 AM
Gandalf_Grey_

no actually putting a hard drive in the freezer works, i think it is because the platters contract quicker than the core and get a better grip so it will turn