Scooby-kid

Hello everyone,

I am trying to find a solution to this solution on behalf of a friend. The above message has apeared on their laptop (MS Dos black/white screen), if they press Alt Ctrl + Dlete it restarts and does the same again. I have read alot about this on the web but found no definate answer:

They are thinking about upgrading soon, so no big deal if it is un-curable, but are the hdd cables like normal IDE cables for a desktop, so that I can plug it in and recover the files and stuff (Very inportant)?

I have read that it should be started up and keep pressing F8 until we get into the MS Dos menu systemy thingy to find out if the hard drive is recognised, but how do I actually do the later?

Thanks for any advise, but please bare in mind I do not know alot of the technicle terms regarding the system, but I'm OK with computers in general.


Thanks,
Scott.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Sounds like bad news, I'd say the HDD has deceased. Any repetitive clicking noises coming from it ?

It will be a 2.5" drive so its a different connection to a 3.5" desktop drive, although you can buy various converters to USB/IDE etc if you want to try and recover the data yourself.

We had to send a Toshiba drive away which cost about £450 to get the data professionally recovered from it after my attempts to recover the data failed (can cause more harm than good).

To get into the bios varies depending on the manufacturer. Which make/model laptop is it ?

Scooby-kid

Hi, thanks for the reply!

It is a fairly old Sony Viao laptop. Would it be easy to remove the hard drive so I can use one of these adaptors?

Thanks
Scott.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Yes, should be a simple case of just removing a couple of screws from the underside and slide it out

To access the bios on a Vaio should be F2 on boot if you want to check there first.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Vaios can be a little more fiddly though . . . .

Mikes Hardware | How To | Sony Vaio Hard Drive Swap

Scooby-kid

Thanks for the help!

I will do some tinkering!

Scott.

Scooby-kid

Ok, so just about to have a crack at this, when I boot it up and press F2, is that it, and I will just see what I need to know? Or will I have to work my way through a bit? Also, what is it that I am actually looking for, is it just 'recognition' of the hard drive?

Thanks very much,
Scott.

Scooby-kid

Also just to add to this, there is a little clunking, but not in any patern, it is just when i do anything (switch on, switch off, enter bios)

Thanks,
Scott.

Scooby-kid

UPDATE:

I have read that I need to use the MS Dos command "chkdisk" - how do I, and where do I use this?

Thanks to anyone who can help,
Scott.

ru'

Command is:

chkdsk

To find out 'how' to use it type...

chkdsk /?

...when in DOS and it'll tell you about the 'switches' you can use with it etc. this works with most (all?) DOS commands by the way (the /? bit, that is).

Alternatively, have you tried google???

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

Scooby-kid

Thanks ru'

At the moment I can olny aces the BIOS, is there anyway that I can enter this command?

Scott.

EDIT:

I have created an MS DOS startup disk, so I can now type in chkdsk, but it says bad commad, (or something like that) I have followed the info on the MS site, ( I put chkdsk [C:] and it did not work) please can someone tell me what I am doing wrong!

Thanks,
Scott

gotmashed

Start/ my computer/ right click hdd/ properties / tools tab / error checking

Scooby-kid

MORE INFO,
I have also tried SCANDISK and all I get is "bad command or file name"

Please help,
Scott.

boomer

Scooby-kid,

are ya anywhere near Tamworth?

mb

Scooby-kid

Burton, why?

Scott.

boomer

If ya can get to Tamworth on a weekday, maybe we can take a peek at your lappy at work. Even is the disk won't boot, we might be able to get any data off it.

mb

Scooby-kid

Thnaks for that

I will see how I get on first. Luckily the disk is partitioned so there is a C and a D drive, I am hoping that only the C section will be corrupt, but I don'y know much about hard drives, and weather or not 'sections' can be damaged, like scratching a cd/dvd.

Scott.

boomer

Drop me a PM if you want us to take a look. I am out most of next week, but should be back in Tamworth on Friday.

If your data is on a D: drive, then there is more chance that it is intact as it will be a separate area from the system (C:) part of the disk.

We actually did a recovery of files for a school in Sutton Coldfield who were also using VAIOs. They wouldn't boot, and the Sony diags/recovery wouldn't work, but we were able to read most of the data and copy it elsewhere.

mb

Scooby-kid

Hello,
Thanks very much for the offer, but first of all, if i just got a 2.5" caddy and put the hard drive in that and conected it via USB, would i be able to read the D drive?

Thanks very much,
Scott.

boomer

Assuming that the MBR (the bit that describes how the disk is divided up and how it boots) is still intact, then yup - an external caddy should let you browse the "D:" drive (but probably as a different letter).

Loads of choice at, say, Aria - starting at less than a tenner!

mb

Alan C

Look around the net for a disk called Hiren Boot CD... You may have to burn it (ISO) to CD..

This will then boot from the CD drive and present you with a menu where you can access a stack of disk tools.. partition managers, disk checking & recovery tools.. It has hundreds of other tools too.. this could save you a lot of time, energy and money by just getting a decent recovery tool to examine your Hard disk pre-boot up.

It's legitimate status is open to question... and if it is illegal I don't recommend or condone its use...