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Posted

Pretty sure the disk has failed on a Dell latitude 510. won't boot up even from CD.

 

Seems that it had some 'imperative' info on it. what's the best way/chance of getting at the data. if there is a way!!

 

CS

Guest kerrymoralee9280
Posted
If it won't even boot from CD, it suggests something other than the HDD. Have you tried removing the HDD and installing it in another laptop - to see if you can get the data
Posted
If it won't even boot from CD, it suggests something other than the HDD. Have you tried removing the HDD and installing it in another laptop - to see if you can get the data

 

Thanks Kerry. trying to do that now actually. trying to work out how to get at it without taking the whole thing to bits :D

Posted

Not a great idea to take the hard drive from one laptop to the next because of windows xp's HAL ( Hardware Abstraction Layer ) which will BSOD on you ( at least it does most of the time ) unless you are going to use a linux live disc or a bart PE disc or something of the sort.

 

Short of that you can get a hard drive kit that allows you to connect hard drives and laptop hard drives externally via USB to another machine ie a laptop or desktop and retrieve the data off of the drive that way.

Posted
Not a great idea to take the hard drive from one laptop to the next because of windows xp's HAL ( Hardware Abstraction Layer ) which will BSOD on you ( at least it does most of the time ) unless you are going to use a linux live disc or a bart PE disc or something of the sort.

 

Short of that you can get a hard drive kit that allows you to connect hard drives and laptop hard drives externally via USB to another machine ie a laptop or desktop and retrieve the data off of the drive that way.

 

Mmmmm dont know about HAL or BSOD? like the idea of a USB kit though. where can i get one of those?

Guest kerrymoralee9280
Posted
You can pick a 2.5" USB HDD chassis up for pennies (try eBay). If you wanted to do it the way I suggest at first, it'll be fine as long as you put it into the same model laptop (if you have another somewhere).
Posted
Not a great idea to take the hard drive from one laptop to the next because of windows xp's HAL ( Hardware Abstraction Layer ) which will BSOD on you

 

teach me for being blonde ... just realised what you mean by BSOD. Sorry ...walks away with his head hung low

Posted
Never had a problem with a hard drive being transferred causing a BSOD, but we always transfer between equivalent models if there's a fault. Those USB kits work quite nicely as well. And failing anything else there's always the old freezer trick which might get you a few minutes of use, but that's a last resort.
Posted
Never had a problem with a hard drive being transferred causing a BSOD, but we always transfer between equivalent models if there's a fault. Those USB kits work quite nicely as well. And failing anything else there's always the old freezer trick which might get you a few minutes of use, but that's a last resort.

 

tried it in the same model with he same error. Can't seem to find a USB kit tho any pointers? Failing that its the freezer. any specific length of time and do you bother de-frosting?

Posted (edited)

DO NOT FREEZE IT!

 

right......

1. try it with a 2.5" USB caddy (unless it's SATA in which case, just plug it into a desktop with SATA)

here is a nice cheap one that'll work

 

2. If it is clicking. DO NOT DO ANYTHING ELSE WITH THAT DRIVE. 9-1 that it is mechanically failed and the only way to fix it would be to open it up and replace mechanical componants (something you will fail at if you try to do it yourself)

 

3. Freezing will only work for old style ball baring motors, where the motor has seized and freezing it shrinks the balls enough to make it move again. This rarely works on new drives, and the motor won't be seized unless the laptop has been dropped about 6 feet (or ~2feet when running)

Edited by Midget
Posted

My laptop drive started issuing dire warnings about SMART errors so I plugged in a large external USB drive, booted from Ultimate Boot CD, used a free imaging tool to image onto the external drive, then swapped the troubled HDD out for a new one and imaged the data back.

 

I would try using a bootable CD rather than trying to boot from the HDD to reduce the potential for extra damage. Most of the widely available ones have a range of cloning and repair tools on them.

Posted

Ok took delivery of my disk caddy this morning and duly plugged said disk. however, it then tried to boot from the disk rather than read it as a data disk. how do i get round this. running xp pro.

 

Stu

Posted
plug it in after booting XP :rolleyes:

 

i did :) its actually stopped doing that after about 4/5 attempts. now it connects and the pc can see the drive but doesnt allocate a drive letter to it so i cant access it.

 

Any ideas? :confused:

Posted
Calm down, your get there.

So you've got the laptop hd in a caddy attached via usb to your desktop PC correct?

 

Yep, plug it in xp reads it, says disk drive found. i hear the drive click and then it tries to boot from it.

Posted
Yep, plug it in xp reads it, says disk drive found. i hear the drive click and then it tries to boot from it.

 

So the computer reboots when you plug the USB hard drive in or does it just try to auto run it? If it is auto run then it is just looking for instructions and content on the disk. If it is at this stage it should allow you to see the files on it.

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