Computer Woes

[Big Wheel]

Well, after some googling it looks like my main computer (a notebook) is totally FUBAR with a hard drive head failure. Has anyone here had experience with dealing with something like this with notebooks? I'm trying to get an idea of what it would cost me to recover the data and replace the drive. Nothing created on this machine has been backed up.

[Claude]

If you don't manage to do it yourself (depends on the damage of the drive), recovering the data will be very expensive (several hundred $).

Replacing a drive is not difficult for somebody who has a bit of knowledge in notebooks. If your notebook is older, you need to be sure what size (GB) the Bios supports. There is also the physical size to look at, there are two different heights of notebook drives (the ones with more GB are larger).

[Big Wheel]

Yeah, I had figured it was going to be a lot of $$$. Really there isn't a whole lot of crucial data on here, as this computer was functioning until the summer as a secondary machine to my desktop machine, which is now 1200 miles away from here. I copied all the files from the desktop to here. I guess the few things that aren't on the other computer aren't such a big deal.

It's a well-known name brand machine, but I can't call the manufacturer to service it because of this computer's shady history. Here's the rundown: when my sister ordered a computer to go off to college, the manufacturer sent the computer to the wrong address. After two weeks she called up the company and told them it still hadn't arrived, so they sent another. In the meantime, she had tracked down the original package with the shipper, which arrived about a half mile from my house. So she calls up the company and says, "I have two computers now. What do I do?" They said, "oh, we'll send you some stickers so you can send the extra one back." Two years later, they still haven't sent the stickers, and never billed us for the extra computer.

My main concern, I guess, is how I'm going to get all the software (especially WinXP) that came preloaded with this computer back onto a new hard drive. The installation packaging is all at home, 1200 miles away.

My notebook knowledge, unfortunately, is close to nil.

[wesbed]

If you go to the manufacturer's website, you can probably purchase a new drive that meets the computer's specifications perfectly. Hewlett-Packard, for example, has directions for how to replace the computer's hard drive as handy as within the Windows Help file. These directions may be on the website too.

Edited October 17, 2004 by wesbed

[ejp626]

Recovering data is another issue. If it is truly a mechanical failure with the hard drive, it is possible that nothing can be recovered. This happened to me only two months ago. The technician couldn't even get the hard drive to access the data; it was complete scrap. If it is more of a formatting problem (a crucial read sector got wiped for example), then you might get some or all of your data back.

[Uncle Skid]

I'm going through this with my notebook -- the hard drive occasionally makes very bad noises, and I've had a number of read/write errors, too. It hasn't actually crashed yet, but I'm assuming it won't be long.

I was going to buy an exact replacement from Dell, but I found some better deals at Provantage.

They had the exact replacement drive for my laptop, but I ended up buying a larger capacity, faster drive for less money. I'll have to do some messing around to get my data on to this new drive, but the extra capacity will be nice.

[Claude]

The easiest way to transfer the data to a new notebook drive is to connect both drives to the mainboard of a desktop PC (you'll need adaptors that connect the small notebook drive connectors to the larger desktop IDE connectors) and to use an imaging software (Powerquest Drive Image or Norton Ghost) to transfer the complete content to the ne drive.

[Big Wheel]

Well, you weren't kidding, Claude. I just talked to ne of the main data recovery places around here and they're quoting me a minimum of $700 (and a possible maximum of $2500(!!). I think I'm probably going to just buy a new drive, then fly home in a few weeks and retransfer all the stuff I wanted from the other PC...jeez, what a hassle.

I guess it's not much to pay, given that the computer was free.

[7/4]

Last summer the morons who were supposed to replace the motherboard in my Dad's machine also installed another customer's Win XP on the machine. We had everything backed up but I had them get the data recovery done. Idiots!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Here at work, we just paid over $2,000 to recover data off of a dead hard drive. This was on the "low end" of the pricing spectrum. Unless you really, really need that data, just get a new drive and chuck the old one. Next, make sure to get a CD or DVD burner. Back-up often. Frequent back-ups can save major headaches in the future. I have a DVD burner in my PCs. 4.5 GB of storage per disc. Nice.

Later,

Kevin

[Big Wheel]

This computer has a CD-R drive, I just never used it because I had so little really important data on this computer. When I was in school, I'd just back all my important stuff up on my network storage.

Guess I learned my lesson the hard way.

[Big Wheel]

After all the stuff I just posted, I turned the computer on again just now and it seems to be working fine. I'm backing up everything important this minute, as I'm guessing whatever happened may have damaged the disk anyway.

[Claude]

I recommend to make daily backups of your personal data (mailbox, bookmarks, documents, pictures) either on a USB memory stick (64MB sticks cost less than $20) or on a CD-RW formatted with a packetwriting software like Roxio DirectCD or Nero InCD. It enables you to use the CD drive as a drive letter and just copy the files to the CD-RW within Windows Explorer, without using the CD writer program.

A more expensive solution with much more capacity is an external hard drive with USB connection. But that only makes sense if your notebook is USB 2 ready. USB 1 is too slow for transfer of many data.

[Big Wheel]

I'm using Roxio right now, though without the DirectCD feature. As long as the data is there and accessible, I don't really care that much...

[Big Wheel]

Now it's being screwy again (there's a repeated, rhythmic clicking sound coming from the hard disk). Good thing I at least got some of the stuff off.

[Big Wheel]

Ok, last question for awhile, I promise.

Now I'm getting an "unmountable boot volume" blue screen error on startup. I copied a ton of files to a CD using Easy CD Creator, but I didn't finalize the disc. Will the disc be readable on another machine?

Thanks!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Ok, last question for awhile, I promise.

Now I'm getting an "unmountable boot volume" blue screen error on startup. I copied a ton of files to a CD using Easy CD Creator, but I didn't finalize the disc. Will the disc be readable on another machine?

Thanks!

When you pop an unfinalized CR-R into a machine with EZ CD Creator (and maybe Nero), there is an option to finalize the session or CD in one of the menus. You should be OK. Much better off than you were with a dead hard drive.

Later,

Kevin

[Claude]

Now I'm getting an "unmountable boot volume" blue screen error on startup.

This means that your drive is dying but you may be able to boot it a couple of times, to secure the rest of the data. If it doesn't work (error while booting the PC or starting Windows), shut the PC down to let the drive cool down and try half an hour later.