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| Thread ID: 94804 | 2008-11-12 20:22:00 | Checking a faulty IDE laptop HDD | shermo (12739) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 719804 | 2008-11-12 20:22:00 | My laptop hard-drive has died a clickety-clackety death (I think), but I'd like to make sure that that's the problem before I shell out for a new one. I've attempted to run seatools for dos, but it freezes, and I've attemped to find the BIOS HDD self checking tool, but the comp also freezes randomly when I'm navigating around the BIOS menu. Do these problems suggest that it may be something more than a faulty HDD? Unfortunately it's IDE and so I can't plug into my desktop (or other laptop) and check that way. Thanks |
shermo (12739) | ||
| 719805 | 2008-11-12 20:37:00 | Back up anything on it now. You can buy an external drive enclosure for laptop hard drives - about $40 from DSE - then plug it into a USB port and check it. | jwil1 (65) | ||
| 719806 | 2008-11-12 22:23:00 | or you could buy a cable that goes from usb to laptop ide interface for the hdd to plug straight into desktop. | Silver_Blade (10144) | ||
| 719807 | 2008-11-12 23:00:00 | Back up anything on it now That may be slightly awkward if the drive has failed and wont read. My laptop hard-drive has died a clickety-clackety death Do these problems suggest that it may be something more than a faulty HDD? One easy way to tell - with the laptop off, remove the HD completely from the Laptop, start the PC and boot from a Linux live CD, it should boot from the CD even without a Hard Drive, see if it will open and close the Linux options / Windows, you should also be able to browse the Internet from the live CD ( done it many times) - if it does every thing OK, then you should be quite safe purchasing a new drive, reinstalling windows etc. A stuffed drive WILL cause freezing on startup and all sorts of other problems. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 719808 | 2008-11-12 23:31:00 | That may be slightly awkward if the drive has failed and wont read. One easy way to tell - with the laptop off, remove the HD completely from the Laptop, start the PC and boot from a Linux live CD, it should boot from the CD even without a Hard Drive, see if it will open and close the Linux options / Windows, you should also be able to browse the Internet from the live CD ( done it many times) - if it does every thing OK, then you should be quite safe purchasing a new drive, reinstalling windows etc. A stuffed drive WILL cause freezing on startup and all sorts of other problems. Ah yes, good advice. I tried this before removing the HDD without success. Would I get a different result with the HDD removed? |
shermo (12739) | ||
| 719809 | 2008-11-13 00:10:00 | Ah yes, good advice. I tried this before removing the HDD without success. Would I get a different result with the HDD removed? Dunno !! but if the HD is removed at least that wont be locking up the PC as it is trying to spin up even from the Linux Live CD. Thats why with the drive removed if it still locks up, then there is some other sort of hardware problem - its not going to hurt it with the drive out, just make sure you have the boot order so the Optical drive boots first. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 719810 | 2008-11-13 01:46:00 | You should be able to disable the drive from the BIOS, check boot up with Linux CD without removing the drive.....just to be safe! | SolMiester (139) | ||
| 719811 | 2008-11-13 20:09:00 | Booted fine with the HDD removed. New HDD time. Cheers guys. Incidentally, nothing was lost, and I was backing up files from my desktop to the laptop HDD when it died :) |
shermo (12739) | ||
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