Help: Toshiba laptop hard drive dead

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EchoSixOne

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#61216 12-May-2010 12:52

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro L300, with a 120 gb hard drive (2.5 inch sata) bought in 2008. It froze up the other day, couldn't unfreeze it so I rebooted with the power key. It now hangs after the 'TOSHIBA' splash screen. Rapidly tapping F8 would ordinarily bring up the boot menu, but now I get a message saying that the boot device cannot be detected (or words to that effect). I'm currently running it using a Linux livecd, and it can't detect the drive either. I think the drive still spins up, but I could be wrong. I took the cover off and checked the drive was seated in its socket properly, all seemed ok. It's never been dropped or anything, so I'm totally stumped as to what's wrong with the drive. Think there's any chance of getting it to a state where I can back it up? If anyone has any insights, I'd appreciate them.

Lias

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#329332 12-May-2010 13:05

If it doesnt detect in the bios, it's probably not salvagable by you, or any techie freinds, or even the local PC store. However its worth trying to connect it to another PC (either directly as a sata drive or via a USB bridge).

Failing that, your only real option is commercial data recovery. Your looking at around ~1k NZ minimum as a general rule. I got it done after loosing a drive containing some stuff I really didnt want to loose and thought it was worth the price. YMMV.

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muppet

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#329344 12-May-2010 13:29

I'd have to disagree a little with Lias (Sorry, Lias!)

I've heard of a few people who have had the controller on their hard drive fail (the electronic circuits between the computer and the drive itself) and they've managed to swap the controller for another from the same type of drive. They've then been able to pull their data off easily.

Being a laptop drive though, you're dealing with tiny components and it'd be a hard job to attempt, assuming you can even find a similar drive.

Of course, it might be that the drive has totally and utterly failed, but usually if that's the case it'll still be detected but just go clunk-clunk-clunk (or worse)

And back to agreeing with Lias, I'd take it to a recovery shop. They'll be able to give you a better idea of what's wrong with it and how much it'll cost to try and salvage.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

OOOHHHH HYPERFIBRE!

EchoSixOne

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Wannabe Geek

#329345 12-May-2010 13:33

Maybe I should pick up a 2.5 inch HD enclosure and see if the drive still works? They're pretty cheap.

muppet

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#329346 12-May-2010 13:34

Certainly couldn't hurt! They're handy things to have.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

OOOHHHH HYPERFIBRE!

Lias

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#329473 12-May-2010 17:38

I've heard of a few people who have had the controller on their hard drive fail (the electronic circuits between the computer and the drive itself) and they've managed to swap the controller for another from the same type of drive. They've then been able to pull their data off easily.

Being a laptop drive though, you're dealing with tiny components and it'd be a hard job to attempt, assuming you can even find a similar drive.

Of course, it might be that the drive has totally and utterly failed, but usually if that's the case it'll still be detected but just go clunk-clunk-clunk (or worse)

And back to agreeing with Lias, I'd take it to a recovery shop. They'll be able to give you a better idea of what's wrong with it and how much it'll cost to try and salvage.

I did say "probably not", yes he could try and do this, but it has a a pretty damn slim chance of succeeding.

If you can find an identical drive and the information isnt worth a commercial recovery then its worth considering,

And yes buying an enclosure is a good start.. very cheap these days.

EchoSixOne

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#330203 14-May-2010 18:24

Took the drive out and sent it to my uncle (he owns a computer repair business). He couldn't fix it but thought it might be a problem with the drive's PCB. He passed it onto a data recovery guy he knows and he's going to see what he can salvage. Anyway, I'm in the market for a new hard drive. I'm told that the WD Scorpio Blacks are pretty highly regarded (also not too expensive) so I'll probably pick up one of those.

muppet

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#330204 14-May-2010 18:29

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

I replaced the boring-slow-snooze 120Gb drive in my Dell laptop with a 320 WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM drive. It make a nice improvement (not huge though) improvement to Windows load times.

I'd say I "Highly Recommend It" but really, it's a hard drive! It works well though, I've been impressed with it. So yes, good choice in my biased opinion.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

OOOHHHH HYPERFIBRE!

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Lias

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#330327 15-May-2010 10:45

Get an SSD :-P

EchoSixOne

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#330370 15-May-2010 12:45

Nice idea, but my laptop's specs are so crap that would be like spending ten grand tuning up a golf cart haha :P