PC wont boot up

JBuk · 24 Apr 2009 at 20:05

I've found out it's the main harddrive thats causing the problem (I unplugged everything and replugged it in one by one until I found the cause)

When its plugged in to the sata port it won't boot and causes the pc to hang whilst detecting drives on bootup

Is there anything I can do bar sending it back?

its also got some stuff I backed up onto it the other day so I could reformat the laptop, :/ any chance of recovering anything?

KingZeddy · 24 Apr 2009 at 21:37

checkm the sata cable isnt damanged its easy to do, try another cable.

KingZeddy · 24 Apr 2009 at 21:48

you probably can get info off by using one of these USB hard drive readers Order Code: A27JBfrom M*pl*n

JBuk · 24 Apr 2009 at 23:30

KingZeddy said:
checkm the sata cable isnt damanged its easy to do, try another cable.

I've checked all that, unfortunately it just freezes the pc right at the splash screen on boot up but the drive still spins so hopefully I can recover the backup of my laptop I made a few days ago :/

JBuk · 24 Apr 2009 at 23:31

KingZeddy said:
you probably can get info off by using one of these USB hard drive readers Order Code: A27JBfrom M*pl*n

Do you have a link for that (if its ocuk) ?

KingZeddy · 24 Apr 2009 at 23:45

i dont believe oc sell the USB hard drive readers thus the order code of A27JB from www.******.co.uk

KingZeddy · 24 Apr 2009 at 23:46

that is Mapl*n

JBuk · 24 Apr 2009 at 23:55

Hmm.. thats a fair whack of cash for something that might not work

KingZeddy · 25 Apr 2009 at 00:48

Cost: I guess it depends on how important the info you need to recover is? you can goolge for a IDE/SATA to USB cable as an alternative, I see these are available for less than £20 from A*m*z*n

postmanfw · 25 Apr 2009 at 03:29

Try using backtrack2 and a usb memory stick. Has worked for me when recovering data from many unreadable faulty drives...its free too

JBuk · 25 Apr 2009 at 14:06

postmanfw said:
Try using backtrack2 and a usb memory stick. Has worked for me when recovering data from many unreadable faulty drives...its free too

How will I go about using it?

The pc does'nt find the drive although the drive is still spinning (but not making any weird noises)
It also fails to boot with the drive plugged in and hangs at the splash screen when detecting drives

I've read it could be the circuit board on the top of the drive so I may swap it with my working drive and see how it goes (they are identical drives)

I'm not worried about the cash but I don't want to waste money on a bit of kit that may not do the job

If the circuit swap doesn't work then I may have to try a data recovery centre, anybody got any recommendations just incase?

postmanfw · 25 Apr 2009 at 15:36

Sorry about that it was late and wasnt thinking properly.

Thats would cause a problem if it was causing the pc to hang on bootup when connected

JBuk · 25 Apr 2009 at 18:47

Well I have swapped the circuit boards and the drive is recognisable and gets past the splash screen but its now making clicking and whirring noises (it didn't do this earlier)

It's not recognised as a bootable disk so I borrowed a usb mem stick off my dad which had a cheeky version of xp which boots off it , it doesn't boot with the faulty drive attached though :/

KingZeddy · 25 Apr 2009 at 23:56

wait till windows is fully booted up then attach the drive