Laptop Help

[TripleBlack]

So I've had my HP laptop for about 2 years now and it has always ran smoothly...

I tried to turn it on this morning and after the hp startup screen it started to make loud clicking noises and after a while the screen went black and it said
'no bootable device found, insert boot disk and press any key'...

I bought my laptop new from bestbuy but it didn't come with any recovery disks (I believe that I had to make them myself). :bash:

Do you guys think my HD has crapped out? If indeed it has crapped out what laptop HD's do you guys recommend? Also would I be able to recover any info on my current HD? And what about my OS? Am I screwed and now have to buy a new one?





***Also my buddy has the exact same laptop, would I be able to make recovery disks on his laptop and use them in mine?

 

[RDJ]

yes it is likely that your hard drive has crapped out. get his recovery disks and see if it can fix it. get all your data off the drive that you care about and go buy a new hard drive, and reload.

if the disk can't be recovered by the HP recovery disk (doubtful) then do a search for "ERD Commander" and get the ISO and make a disk, or find someonw that has one. plug a USB hard drive or thumbdrive into the lap top and boot to the ERD CD. you can sometimes save data using this method when you can't get to your hard drive.

if you don't have anything on the drive that matters, go buy a new one and reload the OS and press on.

edited to add: yes you should be able to use your buddy's recovery disk in your laptop since they are the exact same model. As far as specific brand of Laptop hard drive, I am a big fan of the Western Digitals. In reality they all make good and bad drives so get the one with the longest warranty, Seagate, Western Digital, Fujitsu all make good quality hard drives for laptops.

 

[R1Lello]

My sons HP laptop died just after the 2 year mark, was the hd too, would never buy HP again.

 

[RDJ]

My sons HP laptop died just after the 2 year mark, was the hd too, would never buy HP again.

if the HD failure is the only reason you won't buy an HP again you are basing your decision on the wrong criteria. HP, DELL, ACER, etc. ALL USE THE SAME HARD DRIVES! which hard drvie you get will depend on who gave the manufacturer the best price at the time they were looking to buy. There are plenty of other reasons to not buy HP but the fact you had a hard drive fail after two years is not one of them.

 

[TripleBlack]

Right on man, I'll try to get the disks from him tomorrow. From what I've read it's pretty straight forward to swap a HD and the OS should load from the recovery disks correct?

I do have a few pics and word files that are important so hopefully I can get that stuff back. The funny thing is that I bought a portable HD a few months back to 'back up' my stuff but the only thing that I saved were tv shows and movies. :bored: :kaboom:

Any HD's that you would recommend? I found a few Western Digital HD's on Amazon that caught my eye, but I'm a nooblet when it comes to hardware so maybe you or anyone else can recommend one?

 

[R1Lello]

if the HD failure is the only reason you won't buy an HP again you are basing your decision on the wrong criteria. HP, DELL, ACER, etc. ALL USE THE SAME HARD DRIVES! which hard drvie you get will depend on who gave the manufacturer the best price at the time they were looking to buy. There are plenty of other reasons to not buy HP but the fact you had a hard drive fail after two years is not one of them.

You're correct BUT I still won't. cheers

 

[RDJ]

You're correct BUT I still won't. cheers

LOL no hate from me on this. I don't like them for a variety of reasons, but in truth I have not used anything of theirs for awile either. I am a Dell guy when it comes to hardware.

 

[RDJ]

Right on man, I'll try to get the disks from him tomorrow. From what I've read it's pretty straight forward to swap a HD and the OS should load from the recovery disks correct?

correct. it SHOULD be pretty straight forward.

I do have a few pics and word files that are important so hopefully I can get that stuff back. The funny thing is that I bought a portable HD a few months back to 'back up' my stuff but the only thing that I saved were tv shows and movies. :bored: :kaboom:

Hahahahaha this happens a lot. I would guess that 50% or more of tech heads don't have their shit backed up so even in the business it is not unusual. the other thing you can to that I didn't mention is go to Frys, or some other computer parts store and buy an external CASE to put the hard drive in. you may be able to recover some data that way. A case will run you 20 bucks or so. The concern is the clicking sound you heard. if you had JUST got the error and no clicking chances are high you could recover. but with the associated "clicking" chances of successful recovery drop significantly. the clicking is likely caused by the heads being told to move but for whatever reason they can't so something in the drive mechinisim is likely broke.

Any HD's that you would recommend? I found a few Western Digital HD's on Amazon that caught my eye, but I'm a nooblet when it comes to hardware so maybe you or anyone else can recommend one?

2.5 SATA 7200 Hard Drive, 2.5 SATA 7200 Drive, 2.5 SATA 7200 HDD at TigerDirect.com

any of the 5 stars rated on that page. i have used them all at various times and they are all excellent drives. I would prolly buy this one however,

Hitachi 0S00157 Travelstar Laptop Hard Drive - 2.5, 7200, SATA 3G, 500GB, 16MB Cache at TigerDirect.com

 

[TripleBlack]

Thanks RDJ I'm liking that last one that you recommended, the specs are good and reviews even better.

If anything else goes wrong I'll check back. lol

 

[MissionMan]

sounds like a hard hdd failure. actual hardware issue. buy a new hdd and reload windows.

recovery of data will be tough though.

 

[CobraBob]

RDJ has some excellent advice for you. I do hope you can recover any important data on your bad drive.

 

[mineralgrey01gt]

i think thats the same thing my laptop is doing. its been down for the last year and im not worried about saving anything on it. I have a toshiba laptop. Do i just need a HD more than likely? Any recommendations. Sorry if im jacking the thread but i didnt want to start a new one

EDIT: ill start a new thread anyways

 

[ViciousJay]

My sons HP laptop died just after the 2 year mark, was the hd too, would never buy HP again.

haha who makes hard drives? HP? NOOOOOOOOOO!!! if you want to blame anyone blame seagate or toshiba or western dig.

i use over a million dollars in their products and honestly i wont touch anything outside of them

 

[BLK03SVT10TH]

RDJ has some excellent advice for you. I do hope you can recover any important data on your bad drive.

If the Data is really important, contact this company, Gillware Inc. Data Recovery | File Recovery | Deleted Hard Disk Recovery . They do great work and will even check out your drive and show you exactly what is recoverable BEFORE you give them any money.

It can be a little expensive though, 350.00 if it's something like the Electronics on the Drive and No Clean Room is necessary, about 700.00 if the Drive has to be opened up in a Clean Room and the Data recovered off the platters.

I sent them a 250GB Drive a couple years ago the crashed and they recovered everything for me. I just sent another Drive along and the dumped everything onto the new good one from the crashed one.

 

[TripleBlack]

any of the 5 stars rated on that page. i have used them all at various times and they are all excellent drives. I would prolly buy this one however,

Hitachi 0S00157 Travelstar Laptop Hard Drive - 2.5, 7200, SATA 3G, 500GB, 16MB Cache at TigerDirect.com

So if in fact my HD is down for the count I'm pretty set on the HD that you recommended, BUT I found a variation... Is there any difference between these two? I read a comment on one of them saying that they are the same HD just with a different packaging, but perhaps there is a significant difference.

Check it out:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-7200R-Internal-0S00157/dp/B002FYJQB8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1288594741&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Hitachi Travelstar 2.5 Inch 500 GB 7200R PM SATA II 16 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0S00157: Electronics[/ame]

^That's the one you recommended...

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-Cache-Internal-0S02858/dp/B003SX0ORA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1288594741&sr=8-2]Amazon.com: Hitachi Travelstar 2.5 Inch 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA II 16 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0S02858: Electronics: Reviews, Prices & more[/ame]

That's the other one. The price is basically the same since the second one 'ships' free on Amazon.



If it's the exact same I'd rather just buy the second one because I get free 2 day shipping from Amazon. Thanks! :beer:

 

[CobraBob]

If the Data is really important, contact this company, Gillware Inc. Data Recovery | File Recovery | Deleted Hard Disk Recovery . They do great work and will even check out your drive and show you exactly what is recoverable BEFORE you give them any money.

It can be a little expensive though, 350.00 if it's something like the Electronics on the Drive and No Clean Room is necessary, about 700.00 if the Drive has to be opened up in a Clean Room and the Data recovered off the platters.

I sent them a 250GB Drive a couple years ago the crashed and they recovered everything for me. I just sent another Drive along and the dumped everything onto the new good one from the crashed one.

Yes, there are companies that can do this service. I had a hard drive go bad a few years ago and had a couple of photos that I didn't want to lose as they were very artistic and I knew I'd never replicate them. So I contacted a company in Canada (similar to Gillware) who quoted me prices almost identical to Gillware. I chose not to do it because spending $700. for a couple of photos (even ones I loved) wasn't worth it. And there was no guarantee I'd even get them recovered. I like the idea of Gillware not showing you first what data is recoverable before you make your decision. So in this case, using Gillware, I assume it is still possible that even if they open up the case in a Clean Room that certain data may not be recoverable. True? False?

 

[RDJ]

So if in fact my HD is down for the count I'm pretty set on the HD that you recommended, BUT I found a variation... Is there any difference between these two? I read a comment on one of them saying that they are the same HD just with a different packaging, but perhaps there is a significant difference.

nope no significant differences between the drives. there is a review of the more expensive one (5.00) where this is confirmed by a Hitachi rep. It is merely a newly packaged version of the one I recommended. My guess is that it probably has a later version of firmware on it as well. so get whichever one floats yer boat :beer:

Yes, there are companies that can do this service. I had a hard drive go bad a few years ago and had a couple of photos that I didn't want to lose as they were very artistic and I knew I'd never replicate them. So I contacted a company in Canada (similar to Gillware) who quoted me prices almost identical to Gillware. I chose not to do it because spending $700. for a couple of photos (even ones I loved) wasn't worth it. And there was no guarantee I'd even get them recovered. I like the idea of Gillware not showing you first what data is recoverable before you make your decision. So in this case, using Gillware, I assume it is still possible that even if they open up the case in a Clean Room that certain data may not be recoverable. True? False?

yes it is certainly possible that even if they open it up in a clean room the data may still not be recoverable. Whether it is or not depends ENTIRELY on what is wrong with the drive and WHERE it went wrong. a blown motor for example could probably be recovered regardless of where it blew. A head crash where the drive heads actually bang off the disk surface would be a crap shoot.

The biggest issues is the cost vs. the value of the data OR the time it will take to reconstitute it. I have a hard drive now that I have to make this decision on. it contains almost a terrabyte of TV shows. it will take me HOURS to rip them and encode them again. I am guessing that if I can't get them back any other way I will pay up LOL! my time is worth more than that.

 

[pho_phizzat]

I have had two HP's and had nothing but good luck with them.

Hope you get your stuff back.

RDJ knows his shit. I would take his advice.

 

[TripleBlack]

Thanks, and yeah I'm going to follow RDJ's advice to the letter!

 

[BLK03SVT10TH]

Yes, there are companies that can do this service. I had a hard drive go bad a few years ago and had a couple of photos that I didn't want to lose as they were very artistic and I knew I'd never replicate them. So I contacted a company in Canada (similar to Gillware) who quoted me prices almost identical to Gillware. I chose not to do it because spending $700. for a couple of photos (even ones I loved) wasn't worth it. And there was no guarantee I'd even get them recovered. I like the idea of Gillware not showing you first what data is recoverable before you make your decision. So in this case, using Gillware, I assume it is still possible that even if they open up the case in a Clean Room that certain data may not be recoverable. True? False?

When Gillware does this, they send you a program called the "Gillware File Viewer" along with a special file that is kind of like an Image of your Hard Drive. You can Browse through the entire Drive and look at all the Files and Folders and see the Sizes and File Dates. You can't Open or Save any of the Files though, it's just a snapshot of the contents.