Hewlett Packard

MrBlobby · 19 Sep 2024 at 11:19

I don't know much about computers but it seems more than some of my friends.
A couple of times I tried to help and recovery data from a corrupt Windows installation on a HP device (Laptop and desktop) both times I tried plugging the hdd into and external enclosure and both times nothing could be read on the HDD.

The laptop had a recovery partition and was able to get the laptop working again but losing everything already on the drive (apparently there wasn't much on there) . So there was not damage to the drive just a software one.

What's going on with HP ? They seem to have purposely messed up the hdd so they can't be read and after a certain date they remove all evidence of the laptops / computers from their website.

Is there a cheap place to send the drive to ?

Philtor · 19 Sep 2024 at 12:16

Are you sure the enclosure is not the issue?

I would have connected the drive to a SATA port on a desktop PC (assuming it’s not NVMe) and then browsing the contents that way.

Did any of the drives have BitLocker enabled on them?

MrBlobby · 19 Sep 2024 at 13:40

Philtor said:
Are you sure the enclosure is not the issue?

I would have connected the drive to a SATA port on a desktop PC (assuming it’s not NVMe) and then browsing the contents that way.

Did any of the drives have BitLocker enabled on them?

The enclosure is fine

MrBlobby · 19 Sep 2024 at 13:40

Philtor said:
Are you sure the enclosure is not the issue?

I would have connected the drive to a SATA port on a desktop PC (assuming it’s not NVMe) and then browsing the contents that way.

Did any of the drives have BitLocker enabled on them?

I tried that too

Philtor · 19 Sep 2024 at 19:32

When you say nothing could be read, were you seeing folders and files etc which you couldn’t access or just nothing at all?

MrBlobby · 19 Sep 2024 at 22:18

Philtor said:
When you say nothing could be read, were you seeing folders and files etc which you couldn’t access or just nothing at all?

Actually I can't remember that well but I think I saw a few folders and then it just went really slowly.

MrBlobby · 19 Sep 2024 at 22:19

I doubt they had bit locker enabled the people using the computer aren't that keen.

darael · 20 Sep 2024 at 00:05

If it's a Windows 11 machine, I believe bitlocker is enabled by default.

Philtor · 20 Sep 2024 at 00:23

MrBlobby said:
Actually I can't remember that well but I think I saw a few folders and then it just went really slowly.

MrBlobby, you are a technical support nightmare with the vague answers

MrBlobby · 20 Sep 2024 at 08:11

darael said:
If it's a Windows 11 machine, I believe bitlocker is enabled by default.

They were windows 7

MrBlobby · 20 Sep 2024 at 08:12

Philtor said:
MrBlobby, you are a technical support nightmare with the vague answers

MrBlobby · 20 Sep 2024 at 08:12

I thought someone may know about HP in general

Fringe · 20 Sep 2024 at 08:18

we have currently just moved over to HP at work buying 2 types of Desktops Some Tower 400 and some HP pro SFF 290's

Found that in the larger of the models the Tower 400 there have been No issues so far ( Fingers Crossed ) but in the 290s they have been Crashing on around 10 times a day ( no Blue Screen ) just laying Dead . Discovered with my own that there is a HDD cage where the Air Vent is on the model 290 , Causing the Machine to Over heat . I have removed this from mine and the issue has stopped , But in all Honesty having been inside the case and upgraded little bits IE Ram size and so on the Quality of the builds is terrible.

I know its a mass produced system but there needs to be some Testing / Build Quality Control around them coming out.

Semple · 20 Sep 2024 at 12:00

MrBlobby said:
I thought someone may know about HP in general

You'll probably find that all manufacturers set up in the same same way - so not unique to HP.

MrBlobby said:
The laptop had a recovery partition and was able to get the laptop working again but losing everything already on the drive (apparently there wasn't much on there) . So there was not damage to the drive just a software one.

That's not necessarily true, the data volume may have gotten corrupted but the recovery partition is separate so may appear fine. Without you looking at the drive smart data, or running a full disk check you'll never know whether it's actually just the disk dying.