Nerds Needed!!! HD-Failed!

[Cobalt]

So my laptop has been acting odd ever since I got it over a year ago, taken it to a couple places and they couldnt find anything wrong(hardware) and said it must be software glitches... Well a couple days ago I turn it on and it takes me to a screen telling me to install a OS. I hit the button to get to the diagnostics and tested everything and it said my hard drive wasnt working and it recomended replacement.

I have a lot of important crap on there and I was wondering if there is any way to rip everything from the HD, copy it onto a new HD and install that HD into the laptop? The computer is a HP but I dont remember what model...

[Cblove]

You got a virus home slice.

[tommi]

nerds needed wasnt called for.

[pedroalcala]

Its corrupted. once the HD fails or it just stops spinning its gone...
replace it with a new once. they are fairly cheap. unless you want to fix it, which will cost ya a bit. you need a hard drive from and hp thats fits yours or that its compatible. turn it on again and see if you can hear the HD spin, if not then its gone.

[Masamune]

any 2.5" HD will work in any laptop. Getting the OS and such back on there is a different matter. Figure out if your HD is SATA or ATA-6 before buying a new one.

And yea, your HD is gone. Should've been doing back ups if you suspected something was wrong.

[Bullhorn7]

Put it in your freezer. then take it out and it will work fine.. until it warms up.. Pop it in. Back up your shit. Done.

[Vex]

To all these weird responses.

The only option you have is to get someone to hook it up, that has an option for 2 HDD's in there laptop. 2 options I know of.

1 . Find someone, or a way to get your HD into another laptop that will support 2 HDD's. Therefore even if the HDD is corrupted, you MIGHT still be able to access the files. If you cant, once you click on the HDD icon, it will tell you to reformat, and you there are out of luck.

2. Buy an adapter for laptop HDDs, meaning if you have a computer tower/desktop, buy a external adapter that will power and read your HDD onto your desktop.

Put it in your freezer. then take it out and it will work fine.. until it warms up.. Pop it in. Back up your shit. Done.

Probably the last thing i'd try if all other options have failed.

any 2.5" HD will work in any laptop. Getting the OS and such back on there is a different matter. Figure out if your HD is SATA or ATA-6 before buying a new one.

And yea, your HD is gone. Should've been doing back ups if you suspected something was wrong.

He hasn't got the chance to see if the files remain, there are still options to check if they are still available.

Its corrupted. once the HD fails or it just stops spinning its gone...
replace it with a new once. they are fairly cheap. unless you want to fix it, which will cost ya a bit. you need a hard drive from and hp thats fits yours or that its compatible. turn it on again and see if you can hear the HD spin, if not then its gone.

Again, same with masumune's response. He needs to try a bit harder to see if his HDD is really dead. Im sure someone where you live will know what to do. Google is a good place to search as well.

From personal experience.

I do and used to do some PC custom building, HDD sometimes to tend to take a shit on you at times. That doesnt mean its gone. Some may work, but lose the files they have because the HDD has been dropped before and have a loose pin reading and writing on the disk. Take out your hard drive, shake it, and see if anything clicks or ticks back and forth like the pin moving around.

[cvc7chris]

even if ur hard drive truly fails, theres ways to still get your stuff from hard drives. even if that means removing the actual DISK in it and swapping it into a same model, working hard drive..(last resort)

[Masamune]

Once the HD fails or it just stops spinning its gone...

If the HD is indeed not spinning the HD is done.

I do and used to do some PC custom building, HDD sometimes to tend to take a shit on you at times.

The OS files may take a shit on the HDD, but if the HDD itself loses the ability to spin or the head becomes incorrectly placed/bent/otherwise damaged the only option then is to try and splice the platters from the old HDD into another donor HDD without damaging the head in the donor HDD. Even then there is only a small chance this will actually work and bring the data back from the dead. Freezing the HDD will work if the platters become damaged or have an uneven surface.

[Nyne521]

yea freezing does work in some cases... not all. I have yet to find any laptop unless custom built that will support two HD's if you want to try freezing make sure your quick about it and don't put the HD over anything when you hook it back up the condensation will fuck other stuff up too... so freeze, plug in, grab what you need, and out... not much time before it thaws

[Cblove]

he's got a virus, quit trying to sugar coat it for him. If It worked at least ok, but was acting funny, then it stoped working, you got a trojan homie. Unless you did drop it. Then you're fucked.

[drboy2692]

he's got a virus, quit trying to sugar coat it for him. If It worked at least ok, but was acting funny, then it stoped working, you got a trojan homie. Unless you did drop it. Then you're fucked.

ummm so ur saying some hard drives dont come faulty from factory?? not every1 gets a virus as soon as they turn on their pc, so calm down with that

[life_shift]

This same thing happened to my hp.

Your hard drive is indeed faulty. You can take it to best buy and have them do a data back up and transfer the old data to the new hard drive. It costs like $100 or so, but if money is tight then go elsewhere. And i also recommend you get an external hard drive and save EVERYTHING to that so it wont be an issue ever again. Hope this helps!

God Bless

[Masamune]

he's got a virus, quit trying to sugar coat it for him. If It worked at least ok, but was acting funny, then it stoped working, you got a trojan homie. Unless you did drop it. Then you're fucked.

Sorry but this is a completely ignorant statement. According to your logic, every single hard drive that quits (ever) has a virus and thus causes the physical hardware to just give up? Furthermore, every HD that acts funny or doesn't perform perfectly like it did from the factory has a trojan? Do some research please. We're sugar coating nothing, but instead simply presenting facts based on what the OP stated and trying to consider alternatives to what he has presented us.

This same thing happened to my hp.

Your hard drive is indeed faulty. You can take it to best buy and have them do a data back up and transfer the old data to the new hard drive. It costs like $100 or so, but if money is tight then go elsewhere. And i also recommend you get an external hard drive and save EVERYTHING to that so it wont be an issue ever again. Hope this helps!

This is another alternative. HP has been known to use faulty products in their laptops in the past. See if there were any recalls in relation to your laptops model number.

I feel the need to state this becuase there is a misconception going around that everyone seems to be buying in to. If the OS files on the HDD were deleted/corrupted/moved then data can most definitely be recovered. Booting to a CD-based OS (See: Knoppix, Ubuntu, etc.) will allow you to access the files remaining on the HDD and move them to an external source. If the platters in the HDD are frozen or the head bent/damaged/not reading then there is little to be done. As I've already stated if the head is the problem you may be able to transplant the platters to another HDD and (maybe) recover the data. In the event that the hardware itself is damaged though you're almost certainly out of luck recovering data.

Metaphor: OS damaged = The ECU on your car quitting. You can still access the engine, tranny, things in the glove box, etc. Hardware damaged = You wrap your car around a tree.

All this can be found in the thread linked in my sig, btw.

[psawall]

First off, it's geeks, not nerds.

Second, if your HD spins up, buy this:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...20-OTB&cat=CBL

Remove your HD from the laptop and connect it to that thing and then plug into the USB port of another working computer. If the drive is not corrupted, you can just copy the files off. If you can't see any files, you can purchace some data recovery software that should be able to scan the drive and recover the files.

If your HD does not spin up, you can either spend thousands of dollars to have some professional data recovery firm, OR you can take a chance and replace the circuit board on the back of the HD with another one from the exact same model (if you can find one on ebay). I don't know if you can do it with one of the smaller laptop HDs, but I did that once on a regular 3.5" PC drive and was able to recover the data. Of course this is not guaranteed to work, but it's an option.

Whatever you do, don't waste money on the geek squad or anyone else like that. They won't be able to do anything other than what I have listed.