HDD Failure - Laptop

[MartinL]

My laptop has two hard disc drives.

One HDD - C Drive - contains the operating system - Windows 7 Home - and all other programs. This disc seems to have failed completely.

The second HDD - D Drive - contains all my documents, photos, CAD drawings etc. AFAIK, this disc is OK but I'm guessing it cannot be accessed because C Drive seems to be dead. Would that guess be correct?

While I'm fine in using the com. as a tool, my knowledge of what can & can't be done in the event of component failure is very poor.

If I found a competent repairer - certainly not me!! - could the information on D Drive possibly be recovered & transferred to another computer or is it irretrievably lost? Alternatively, if the failed HDD was replaced and the OS reloaded, would the info. on D Drive then be accessible again?

Thanks.

[Crossy]

Make and model of laptop would be useful.

Does the machine really have two physical drives?

Many are set up with a single physical disk with two partitions which look like two separate drives but are actually on the same hardware. Lose one, the other is also gone.

Exactly how does the machine behave, can you get into the CMOS setup utility and see if the drive(s) are visible?

[lostinisaan]

Make and model of laptop would be useful.

Does the machine really have two physical drives?

Many are set up with a single physical disk with two partitions which look like two separate drives but are actually on the same hardware. Lose one, the other is also gone.

Exactly how does the machine behave, can you get into the CMOS setup utility and see if the drive(s) are visible?

Seems that you're right, as there're not many laptops around with two HDD's. If so then you'll have a big problem to recover any data, as it's usually only one disk. divided into two partitions.

How old is your machine? Is it possible that ants, or other insects are inside, causing this failure? Depending on the model, it's pretty easy to take it out and check, or get it checked, if it's visible when using another machine.

There're ways to recover your data from a malfunctioning disc, but it's a sort of difficult and expensive. Others might be more knowledgeable.

Hard drives usually have a life span of four years. Good luck with troubleshooting.

Edited September 17, 2014 by lostinisaan

[aarn]

Do not despair!

There might be issues with BIOS or POST (startup functions) which even an idiot like myself can fix.

The health of the drives can be ascertained after placing them in external drive enclosures, then checking on a friend's linux system.

Maybe you just need to get a new drive to put in 'C', and reinstall windows.

What would I do?

- open up the laptop then remove both HDDs

- place new drive into laptop

- reinstall windows 7 from a usb

- reinsert D drive

- screw everything back in place and go for it.

PM if you would like further suggestions.

Cheers, AA

[innerspace]

First thing is try it in another machine, will show you what and where the issue is.

After you have tried that we can advise more.

Recovery is possible but different methods and complexity depending how its died.

[SDM0712]

Duplicate post.

PS......Peter Capaldi, any thoughts ?

Edited September 17, 2014 by SDM0712

[SDM0712]

I had something happen like this once and it hadn't failed at all, even though I got an error message saying that said it had. I had dropped it on a tiled bathroom floor, following a meeting in the smallest room of the house, and the drive had in fact become dislodged and the physical connection with the board had been damaged. I'm amazed it didn't shatter the drive as it was spinning.

Take it to a repair shop, not sure where you are but if you're in BKK Pantip plaza is really good with things like this. Even if they can't get it working probably they might be able to put it on a rig and pull all the data off.

Good luck.

SDM

PS Two hard drives, that's an unusual configuration, I'm surprised there's room. Also, if the second drive works perfectly there's no problem getting that data off. If you know how to get the drive out see what kind of connector it uses, it may be something easy like a mini USB plug, if it is just connect it up to a PC USB and it will read like an external "MASS DATA" device.

PPS Moderator, please delete my preceding post.

Edited September 17, 2014 by SDM0712

[Riggi]

If you have access to another pc, make a bootable USB stick with Ubuntu on it.

If the laptop hardware is OK, you should be able to boot from the USB stick.

You can then check if either partition is readable.

If it's just the C: partition that is corrupted, then you may be able to copy the data from the D: to an external USB drive.

[Pib]

I expect the OP has one hard drive partitioned into C and D Drives. A lot of laptops come that way. He could try taking the hard drive out of the laptop and putting it in a external USB enclosure or docking station to see if the drive is still accessible when hooked to another computer. He might get lucky and maybe just his operating system boot files on C Drive have got corrupted, but the odds are higher the drive has physically/electrically failed based on his description....needs to remove it from the laptop and see how it works externally in an enclosure/docking device.

[crabdog]

Really there is a much easier way of diagnosing your problem. Simply create a Linux boot on a USB stick and run it live. From there you will be able to see whether a single partition or the entire hard drive has failed. The only caveat here is that you would need access to another computer to create the boot drive. Instructions can be found here: http://www.porteus.org/tutorials/37-installing/114-official-porteus-installation-guide-v-10.html .

[GuyL]

Try to burn a Hiren's boot CD from another computer. Then, you can launch its "Mini Windows XP" environment after booting on this CD. From there, you can check whether or not you can still access your hard disk(s) and/or partitions, and if not, several good recovery tools are available.

About Hiren's boot CD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiren%27s_BootCD

Download location: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Edited September 18, 2014 by GuyL

[keeniau96]

Would help to have the exact name and model number of the laptop.

[dominique657]

Why dont you try to recover your filles first? Watch this video tutorial for more help.

http://youtu.be/2U8QPKH6ZP4

[innerspace]

Linux or hiren boots are good ideas but nothing is as good in this scenario as pulling it out and testing in another machine.

A same machine boot cd/usb can detect the following possible issues.

1. Corrupt filesystem (says needs format but recoverable)

2. Failed partition with other working, possibly linked to 1

A separate machine can detect the following.

3. Bad cable connection...just reconnect.

4. Bad cable...just replace

5. Bad motherboard

6. Bad power supply

7. Fully dead drive

If you dont have another machine find a techy friend or computer shop, they can diagnose in 15 mins. Fix depends on the issue.

[BKKdreaming]

is there a way to have a "dead" HD that spins but not boot , fixed to get the info off it ?

there is a program advertised called Spinrite that claims to fix everything ! But it is expensive for a one time use and reviews are so-so

thanks for the help

'

[GuyL]

is there a way to have a "dead" HD that spins but not boot , fixed to get the info off it ?

there is a program advertised called Spinrite that claims to fix everything ! But it is expensive for a one time use and reviews are so-so

thanks for the help

'

I tried Spinrite on a few occasions with mixed results. As mentioned earlier, I firstly use the HDD repair tools available on Hiren's Boot CD, but as a last resort, I have tried the freezer trick described here: http://lifehacker.com/5515337/save-a-failed-hard-drive-in-your-freezer-redux

While I haven't been always successful with this method, it gives surprisingly good results (albeit, you have to be ready to quickly backup the faulty hard disk, because access to its data sometimes doesn't last long after this operation).

Edited September 21, 2014 by GuyL

[draftvader]

Please can you describe the actual symptoms from pressing the power button. How can you be sure the HD has failed completely? Could it be a corrupted OS?

[MartinL]

Thanks, folks. If nothing else, I've learnt something about partitioned HDDs - yes, I have only a single physical HDD so I guess it's partitioned as described.

Laptop is an Acer Aspire 4736 G.

How do I know it's failed completely? Well, I don't, really, but so far as I'm concerned as a user, it doesn't do what I want so I classify that as "failed". However, a few seconds before the screen went blank, a window opened with a message containing the phrases " ... a Smart event has occurred ... all data may be lost ... " or similar. I literally didn't have time to read it in detail before darkness descended. Maybe that shines a different light on the problem.

When powering-up now, I get a black screen saying " ... Windows error recovery ... Windows failed to start ... Launch start-up repair ... start normally ...". Selecting either option eventually produces a blue screen and nothing else. The "HDD Running" indicator LED doesn't illuminate at any time.

I got hold of a Windows 7 start-up disc to try to reload. The disc drive runs & the screen says "Setup is starting" but it gets no further than that even after a few hours.

Somebody has sent me a PM - although he hasn't posted here - with details of a data recovery service he's used successfully in the past for a similar problem so maybe that's the way to go, depending on cost.

Edited September 22, 2014 by MartinL

[SDM0712]

Sounds like a corrupted file on Windows. If it was a disk failure you wouldn't get that far. Is your anti virus up to date?

Complete failure would normally means a disk that has stopped turning, maybe it's been dropped while running and has shattered, or the motor has just failed. Put the machine to your ear and you should be able to hear it whirring separate from the cooling fan.

Sounds like a shop would be the best bet but I'm guessing once the OS has been sorted out it will work fine.

You should be able to format what we used to call a boot disk on a USB and start the system for that, but admittedly it's years since I worked at this level with computers and still hate them, so I might be out of date. Can you start in Safe mood *

S

. * Intentional spelling error as sometimes it's a more accurate term

Edited September 22, 2014 by SDM0712

[Pib]

Thanks, folks. If nothing else, I've learnt something about partitioned HDDs - yes, I have only a single physical HDD so I guess it's partitioned as described.

Laptop is an Acer Aspire 4736 G.

How do I know it's failed completely? Well, I don't, really, but so far as I'm concerned as a user, it doesn't do what I want so I classify that as "failed". However, a few seconds before the screen went blank, a window opened with a message containing the phrases " ... a Smart event has occurred ... all data may be lost ... " or similar. I literally didn't have time to read it in detail before darkness descended. Maybe that shines a different light on the problem.

When powering-up now, I get a black screen saying " ... Windows error recovery ... Windows failed to start ... Launch start-up repair ... start normally ...". Selecting either option eventually produces a blue screen and nothing else. The "HDD Running" indicator LED doesn't illuminate at any time.

I got hold of a Windows 7 start-up disc to try to reload. The disc drive runs & the screen says "Setup is starting" but it gets no further than that even after a few hours.

Somebody has sent me a PM - although he hasn't posted here - with details of a data recovery service he's used successfully in the past for a similar problem so maybe that's the way to go, depending on cost.

Since it giving your a "SMART" related error message its probably a hard drive failure versus just corrupt files. What is SMART...to quote from Wikipedia

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology; often written as SMART) is a monitoring system for computer hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives(SSDs)^[1] to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of anticipating failures.

But even with a hard drive failure you should be able to boot from a start-up disk unless the failed hard drive is preventing even a bootup from a startup disk.

Assuming the hard drive can be easily removed, why don't you try removing the hard disk and try the startup disk again. And if you can easily remove the hard drive put it in a external hard drive enclosure, like a low cost USB 3 or 2 enclosure, hook it to another computer and see if the drive appears....if it does appear you may be able to save/transfer your data.

[Riggi]

Similar thing happened to me the other week. I get the option to run start up repair, but it can't repair and Windows won't boot.

I was able to boot off a Ubuntu USB stick and I could mount the partions and copy all my data off the D: to an external USB drive.

Trying to format the disk gave an error though. And, GParted wouldn't display the disk information. Haven't had time to mess around any more, but glad I copied my data off.

[MartinL]

Anti-virus - I use 2; McAfee LiveSafe, which is running permanently and Windows Defender which I run manually once a week. Both updated the previous day & system scanned with both.

No sound of the disc turning. That's something I made a point of listening for. The external area near the disc drive is warm-to-hot so I assume it's getting power but, as you say, maybe it's a shattered disc/motor problem and that power is insufficient to revolve the disc. I'm sure it hasn't been dropped.

Edited September 22, 2014 by MartinL

[SDM0712]

Where are you? In Thailand I assume! If your near or in BKK, someone at Pantip Plaza will sort you out. I think if the disk itself is physically damaged then it's probably a lost cause.

Edited September 22, 2014 by SDM0712

[draftvader]

It would be worth putting in the original OS disk (or copy of) and attempting a repair option from the disk (rather than the built in partition recovery). If you can get this to work then the ONLY task you should do when you see your desk-top is back-up to external.

After this you have 2 options:

1) Have a new drive put in, re-install windows and software, bring data back across

2) Darik's Nuke and Boot (I think this is on Hirens) then scan the drive for errors. If you see a small number you could risk running a partition tool to "remove" (i.e. hide) the bad sectors and start again. Truthfully with only 1 operational drive option 1 is a winner all round!

[GuyL]

@draftvader: Yes, Darik's Boot & Nuke is one of the numerous hard disk Tools available on Hiren's Boot CD.

---------------------

@MartinL: According to your profile, it seems that you are located in Khon Kaen province. I am in Udon Thani province (although, not in Udon Thani city, but at about one hour drive, north-west of this provincial capital). If you plan to go to Udon Thani one of these days with your notebook, send me a PM and I could have a look at it and maybe backup your data and even repair your current HDD.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

The first thing that I would have done is what Riggi did. Mount the drive with a Live image in order to remove any important data. Secondly, I would remove the HDD and replace it with a new one.

I have no idea as to why people are suggesting that you use Darik's Boot And Nuke. Just crazy.

[draftvader]

The first thing that I would have done is what Riggi did. Mount the drive with a Live image in order to remove any important data. Secondly, I would remove the HDD and replace it with a new one.

I have no idea as to why people are suggesting that you use Darik's Boot And Nuke. Just crazy.

Depends on their financial situation. If he is tight for cash then he might just be able to get the drive to function for a short while in the interim. Was really offering it as an option, but you will note that it was not recommended. We still haven't established whether the drive is dead or whether there is a corrupt file in Windows.

[BKKdreaming]

what gets put on the D drive as a back up ?

normally its not very big so it can not be the complete C dtive

[GuyL]

what gets put on the D drive as a back up ?

normally its not very big so it can not be the complete C dtive

A D drive may be as big or even much bigger (in capacity) than a C drive. It depends on how the HDD was partitioned. Common practice in Thailand is 50% / 50% of the total capacity for both drives, but I recently partitioned a 1 TB HDD for a friend and the capacity of his C drive is 'only' 150 GB while the D drive has a 850 GB capacity. By the way, it is possible to configure your Windows operating system to store all your documents by default on the D drive.

[Hmmm]

> While I'm fine in using the com. as a tool, my knowledge of what can & can't be done in the event of component failure is very poor.

If you want the best chance of recovering the situation you're going to have to do some homework.

Trust your disk to the wrong computer shop or one that doesn't understand what you want (data recovery from just the D partition), and you can kiss your data goodbye. You could end up with your disk newly formatted with a nice new copy of Thai Windows on it .. and nothing else.

However, given your above statement, I suspect some of the other suggested solutions may be beyond you. They're also not what I would do first in your situation, IMHO. You don't need any special software to attempt the most obvious disk access approach. I would also not be trying to re-install the OS unless you're confident that you can follow the right steps to preserve the D partition while doing that.

The first technique I have used many times in similar situations is dependent on having access to another, working Windows computer. You need a USB adaptor that will plug directly into your disk, similar to this:

http://www.amazon.com/USB-SATA-5-25-Cable-Adapter/dp/B000YJBL78

You can get them at Pantip or similar big computer malls for a couple of hundred baht. Take your disk along to make sure you get one with the right connectors.

It's basically the same electronics as an external USB drive has, without the box. If you can't find one, ask for a full external USB drive enclosure for the disk instead, which will cost a little more.

Plug your disk into the connector. Plug in the power to the disk. Then plug the USB into the working computer. If the disk is readable, it will pop as as one or two external drive partitions. If your D partition is OK, copy off your data.

If not, your last chance may be a data recovery service. Someone else can advise on where they are in Thailand. The skills and equipment required are not something your average computer shop has. Can be expensive.