Is my Hard Drive dead?

[Woody3]

Just been working away on my laptop, everything was going fine, then all of a sudden all running programmes went into "Not responding" mode.

Pressed ctrl + alt + delete, but to no avail, so held on/off button down to reset.

Now when I turn the laptop back on, I get the Samsung logo initially, followed by a setup page (Aptio Setup Utility).

Looking at this, I think I may have found the problem, it states:

SATA Port 1 - NOT INSTALLED
SATA Port 2 - TSSTcorp CDDVDW SN-208N

I took the HDD cover off and can hear the HD spin up when I switch the laptop on, but get this page each and every time and I can't get any further.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Laptop is a Samsung NP350V5C and about 15 months old.

Cheers!

[Woody3]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I'm running Windows 8.1.

I'm going to try all options listed above. Will report back with my findings.

Hopefully I will recover 5 hours lost work from this morning...

Thanks again!

[Woody3]

Bit of an update and I'm a bit stuck in all honesty...

I've got it to boot with Porteus on a CD and I'm on the desktop. All good.

However, where would I find my files if there are any? There seems to be lots of folders with funny names none that I recognise. Will my files be within one of these folders?

The second question is:

To get my computer to boot from the CD drive, I followed the following instructions:

- Select " Advanced" and change the Fast BIOS Mode to OFF. This is a necessary condition for the system to boot from the USB.
- Then select "Boot", and in that, change the Secure Boot to OFF. Below that, the OS Mode Selection must be "CSM OS".
- Then save the changes and reboot.

This enabled it to boot from the Porteus iso file on the CD.

However, when I reboot now, I can't get back to the BIOS page. It just says insert CD to disk drive.

Any ideas how I can reinstate the BIOS page?

HELP?

(Talk about a steep learning curve!)

Edited by Woody3 on Wednesday 4th February 19:53

Thanks Doctor Volt - only just saw your last reply. Will do that tomorrow. Any pointers on the above?

Edited by Woody3 on Wednesday 4th February 19:55

[Woody3]

Thanks again chaps.

Yep F2 is the key and I've got it back to square one again, so thanks for that!

I don't have another computer with SATA, so can't test it tonight, but I've just spoke to a mate who used to work at Knowhow and he's hopefully going to pop across tomorrow evening to take a look.

If I can just get the data off the Hard Drive, I'd be more than happy.

All your help is much appreciated.

[Woody3]

Update to thread:

The HDD is a no go-er. Can't recover anything from it - ARGH!

My mate plugged it into numerous devices and used various recovery software, but to no avail. Gutted is an understatement!

The HDD can be heard spinning, but nothing is picking it up. Currently using another HDD in my laptop to see me through.

Can anyone recommend me a decent HDD for my laptop? AND Can anyone recommend a free online storage service?

The HDD that has just failed on me is a Hitachi 750GB (5400RPM)

On a separate (and happier) note, a few years ago, I spilled lemonade on my upside down laptop (don't ask), which made it sizzle and refused to turn on. When I took it to a computer place to get my data recovered from the HDD, they told me it was dead and write it off. Anyway, while my mate was around, I passed him the dead Laptop and the HDD (which I had removed), sticks the HDD into another machine, uses some recovery software and lo and behold, the HDD works! Plugged the "lemonade" laptop in and even that started up! Couldn't believe it. Now I have photos of my past cars that I thought were long gone! Wahoo! And the ease of using Windows XP over Windows 8 is rather worrying!

[Woody3]

trashbat said:

As an extreme, and to be honest, with low chance of success, you could buy another identical drive - I really mean identical, matching as many component numbers as possible - and swap over the controller board.

I say this because if it's not recognised at all, it's more likely that the PCB has failed than anything mechanical.

It's not a hard job - just some screws and ribbon cables. The hard part is sourcing one that will be compatible.

If you're interested, post up good photos of the top & underside of your drive, and I'll help you out.

Photos as requested:





Doctor Volt - will give that article a read, thanks

[Woody3]

Just won the board for £25 incl p&p, so we'll see what happens. Wish me luck...

[Woody3]

p.s. Any idea what size torx screwdriver I will need? Cheers!

[Woody3]

Thanks. Will get a set ordered.

Doctor Volt - thanks for that. Would you be able to advise how to do that if I find out it isn't compatible?

[Woody3]

Thanks for all the research you chaps are doing.

The new board has arrived.

From reading the above, I'm going to try somewhere local will hopefully be able to swap the chip over. Is the chip called a BIOS chip or NVRAM chip? Or are they the same thing?

Doctor Volt - how far away are you from me?

Should I try the board as is first? Or should I wait until the chip is swapped?

Thanks again! All of your help is much appreciated!

[Woody3]

Ah, no problem. I was contemplating posting it to you, but don't fancy the postage bill to overseas haha!

Just waiting for a call back from a local company regarding swapping the NVRAM over.

I shall report back with my findings as and when they happen.

[Woody3]

marshalla said:

buggalugs said:

If it's a big problem he should put his old drive in a box and send it to Marshalla, not take a soldering iron to it. This is playing around and don't give the impression it's otherwise.

Sorry, but no. I'm not touching that one. Too much mixed advice and fiddling with it already.

Hi Marshalla,

I'm not too sure what you mean about me fiddling about with my HDD (oo-er). It's been taken out of my laptop, and plugged into another to see if any data could be recovered. Besides that, it's been sat in a box on my shelf. Are you really unable to help?

[Woody3]

Can anyone ask Marshalla if he could revisit this thread for me please?

Tried pm'ing him, but I never seem to have any luck with pm'ing on here.

Cheers!

[Woody3]

I was/am (and no need to apologise ).

But from my understanding, Marshalla is the chap most PH'ers use to recover their data, so I'd like to try this first, then if it's unsuccessful, I'll try swapping the chip over.

I think that is the best order...

[Woody3]

Not having any luck finding anyone that does soldering in my area.

Any idea what terms I should use in Google?

[Woody3]

Thanks trashbat - and apologies, didn't see your reply.

Just asked in the regional section.

[Woody3]

Just thought I'd update this for people who may stumble across this thread in the future.

I got the chip swapped, and... it didn't work .

Thanks for all the advice anyway, at least I gave it a go!



So, now I'm after a new SATA HDD.

Can anyone advise on which one to get please?

[Woody3]

Yeah, it still says "not installed" on the BIOS screen unfortunately...

And thanks Martin - I will take a look at the link.

Are there any particular retailers I should use and is it better to have one that has Windows 8 installed or?