Hard drive busted?

Larnica · 23 Aug 2010 at 12:10

Hiya,

Turned the laptop off last night and now it wont boot. It gets to the "Microsoft Corporation" loading screen then the screen goes black and only the cursor shows. I've tried starting in safe mode, debugging mode, last known good config, repair and even used the operating CD but still no luck.

The harddrive seems to make no sound like it use to so that cannot be good! Either way, I have some data that I need to get off it, is it possible to connect the SATA drive to another laptop, I dont really have a desktop to use

Ta

R088ieS86 · 23 Aug 2010 at 12:47

Use something like Mint to boot into the laptop, It rans from the RAM so as long as it is a HDD problem it should load fine.
If your lucky you'll be able to use a USB device to copy stuff off the harddrive.

Larnica · 23 Aug 2010 at 15:22

Ta, how do I go about doing this, download and boot from CD? Can I run it from the disc withotu risk of loosing data on the hard drive?

R088ieS86 · 23 Aug 2010 at 15:52

if you download it, i believe it comes as an ISO, burn to disc, start with it in the drive and it will boot up. It won't touch the Hard drive until you browse it. Its unlikely that simpley accessing the disc will cause data loss.

Of course if the drive is damaged then you may not be able to access it at all.

good luck

Larnica · 23 Aug 2010 at 15:58

Cheers

Ill get on it

matthab · 23 Aug 2010 at 16:06

OR even easier. Download the HD amnufacutres diagnostics CD and run that. That will give you an awnser pretty quickly.

Larnica · 23 Aug 2010 at 19:25

Huge huge huge thanks

Mint bootable CD failed at first so tried Dell Diagnostic, but it said everything was okay. Retried Mint but as a bootable DVD and it loaded and i managed to save pretty much everything i want. Phew! Ill be backing up daily now!! Thanks

Mason- · 23 Aug 2010 at 19:26

Never heard of that Mint program, looks pretty good though for hard drive failures thanks Robbie book marking that.

Larnica · 23 Aug 2010 at 19:43

Yes Mason, its great

mogwai · 23 Aug 2010 at 19:50

In my Mum's Dell laptop there was an issue with the HD which was shown as the hard drive emitting a beep something to with impact detection. Yet when the Dell Diagnostics where run no errors showed.

I would as others have suggested get the checking util from the hd manufacturer. Or if you have a desktop take the disk out and attached it to the pc and see if the hd can be read.