Compaq laptop problem [Hard Drive?]

[mikehende]

My cousin just brought over the Compaq Evo N610C which she had gotten from me a year or two ago. It was working fine as usual until the nephews started messing around with it, when she came home last night she turned it on and it would not go past the Compaq screen and the Hard drive was and still is making a "whirring" noise, I took out the HD, cahnged the boot order and placed the recovery cd in and it went through the processes.

I then changed back the boot order, placed the HD in and now there isn't any screen at all with the HD still making the noise, before telling my cousin to go get another HD, I wanted to check with you guys here first to make sure that the HD is shot, recommendations please?

[Seth]

How could you run a recovery without a hard drive in?

Anyway, the whirring noise may be a mechanical failure, or it just may be the drive trying to deal with corrupt files/sectors.

Can you get to the bios? If so, is the hard drive detected there? If so, move on to the following.

If that's XP, can you boot to the recovery console? If so, run hard drive error checking by typing in chkdsk /r

[mikehende]

I did not run the Recovery cd all the way through Seth becuase I wanted to know if there is any way to save the contents of the drive before erasing so I only placed the cd in the drive to see if that's working. Is there a way I can save whatever's on the drive before going all the way with Recovery?

[Seth]

I did not run the Recovery cd all the way through Seth becuase I wanted to know if there is any way to save the contents of the drive before erasing so I only placed the cd in the drive to see if that's working. Is there a way I can save whatever's on the drive before going all the way with Recovery?

Yes, but you will need a converter. You can purchase a laptop hardrive to IDE converter and then slave it in your computer. Check the laptops drive though, if it's a Sata, then you have to get the laptop Sata to IDE converter.

Are you still getting no display? Check the hard drive again, some will fit in upside down, and that may be what's causing the no display.

Otherwise, can you get to the bios to see if the drive is detected? And can you get into the recovery console?

[mikehende]

The only option I see here on startup is to get to "setup" via F10 which is where I went to change the boot order. Alright, forget about saving the info, we have an image of this pc saved on an external HD so let's proceed with recovery, I want to make sure I can uderstand your terminology so pelase bear wirth me, let me ask this

1] what's the difference between Bios and Setup?

2] What do you mean by Recovery "console"? I place the Recovery cd in and it goes to where it tells me if I proceed then I will lose all saved data, should I proceed? If so, at which point [when/where?] should I run the checkdsk?

[Seth]

The only option I see here on startup is to get to "setup" via F10 which is where I went to change the boot order. Alright, forget about saving the info, we have an image of this pc saved on an external HD so let's proceed with recovery, I want to make sure I can uderstand your terminology so pelase bear wirth me, let me ask this

1] what's the difference between Bios and Setup?

2] What do you mean by Recovery "console"? I place the Recovery cd in and it goes to where it tells me if I proceed then I will lose all saved data, should I proceed? If so, at which point [when/where?] should I run the checkdsk?

1) There is no difference.

2) The Recovery Console is part of a Windows XP cd. It's mainly used to perform system maintenance. If you just have recovery cd's, then you don't have the Recovery Console. However, any XP cd will work to get to the Recovery Console. When you boot to an XP cd, an option will appear that say's "Press "R" to enter the Recovery Console". You will be asked what Windows to log onto to (just hit "1"), and if you're asked for a password, then just hit enter.

Now above and beyond all that, we can troubleshoot the hard drive, which means first going into the bios (setup) to see if it's detected. BTW- The bios is the Motherboards program that controls the devices attached to it.

If you just want to attempt the recovery, then just boot to the recovery cd and follow the instructions.

Let me know how it's going...

[mikehende]

In "Setup" it shows "File, Security, Tools, Advanced" and I don't see anything whether HD or CD listed anywhere.

[Seth]

In "Setup" it shows "File, Security, Tools, Advanced" and I don't see anything whether HD or CD listed anywhere.

:confused:

I've never seen a bios like that. Did you go into each heading?

Anyway, just go back to wherever you were to change the boot order. Set it to cd, hard drive, then floppy. Now try the recovery cd.

[mikehende]

:confused:

I've never seen a bios like that. .

Which is why I had to ask what the difference was between Setup and Bios.:) As far as I remember this laptop has XP Pro and my Desktop has XP Home, with mine, it has the Bios screen which I am sure you're speaking of, with all the info and options but yes, I went through all the headings, will try to get a screenshot later on for you to see that it is totally different from the Bios on my desktop.

I will go do the Recovery thing now, keep you posted, thanks.

[Seth]

Ok, in virtually all computers, the bios is the same as setup. If yours isn't, then the only possible thing that "Setup" could be is some type of OEM diagnostics.

[mikehende]

Tried running the Recovery cd, it show an "hour-glass" for a few minutes like it was doing something and now there is only

C:\>

on the screen?

[Seth]

Oh Oh.

That can often mean the hard drive is shot, but normally with a recovery cd, you would get some sort of error. There was no error?

This may also be caused by a scratched or dirty cd. If it's got smudges, etc, wash it in soapy water and rinse thoroughly. Dry it with a lint free cloth or paper towel. Never dry in a circular motion, dry from the center out.

I hope that helps Mike because I've got to go. In the last 10 minutes I got two service calls (so far 4 repairs today!). I'll be back later to see how it's going. I hope someone else can offer some suggestions in the meantime.

[mikehende]

No error message and cd is clean, thanks, go take care of business, check in later for an update.

[kelly]

Trying to remember what I've seen on Dell machines that have a hidden hard drive partition used for recovery purposes. I think you use Setup to choose to boot from the recovery partition.

This differs from getting into the BIOS. I think on the Dell I worked it was F12 to get to setup and either F2, F10, or Del to get to the BIOS.

- tony

[mikehende]

well, don't know where to go from here, get a new Hard drive?

[mikehende]

Tried the Recovery cd, doesn't work so I have to "assume" that the hard drive is no good. What I am contemplating now is whether to tell my cousin to send it in to a laptop repair specialist or just buy a new hard drive? The reason why I am considering she send it in to a specialist is becuase I don't know what caused this and I would hate to put a new drive in and the same thing happens, what would you techs do in this case?

[mikehende]

Yes, but you will need a converter. You can purchase a laptop hardrive to IDE converter and then slave it in your computer. Check the laptops drive though, if it's a Sata, then you have to get the laptop Sata to IDE converter.

I think the converter would be the best option here BUT what I just noticed is that the pcmcia card slot is not working too?

[Seth]

Tried the Recovery cd, doesn't work so I have to "assume" that the hard drive is no good. What I am contemplating now is whether to tell my cousin to send it in to a laptop repair specialist or just buy a new hard drive? The reason why I am considering she send it in to a specialist is becuase I don't know what caused this and I would hate to put a new drive in and the same thing happens, what would you techs do in this case?

What would I do?

I would check the bios to see if the hard drive is being recognized. Here (http://common.packardbell.com/PrsPicDwn/BIOS_Triton_NT_Primary_IDE_Master.gif) is a picture of something like what you should see. The hard drive will show as the primary master. If the bios doesn't recognize it, I would pull it out and make sure none of the pins are bent. If it still didn't detect it, I would reset the bios defaults. And if still nothing, I would replace the drive as at this point there is 95% chance that the hard drive is shot.

If it is being detected by the bios, I would boot to an XP cd and run the chkdsk /r from the Recovery Console. What I would next at this point would depend on what the chkdsk tells me.

That Setup may be Diagnostics, or just a non standard bios setup. Poke around in there and see if you come across a diagnostic utility.

[mikehende]

The Bios screen in your post is close to what I have on "my" pc but not at all what is on the laptop. I looked in there and there is nothing like what we are looking for, I will look deeper into this afterwards though. I did try many times to reset the default but doesn't work. I will be calling HP in a short while to see what info I can get from them, what concerns me more now is that the pcm slot doesn't show any power to the card so I am thinking this may be a job for HP?

[mikehende]

Just got off the horn with Compaq, they said that the pcm slot issue is not something they can tell me without inspecting the unit. The Bios I mentioned is the only BIOS screen for this laptop, I did a comparison with my Desktop's Setup screen and the Laptop's Setup screen, the laptop does not have half the options of my desktop and certainly not the "Drive Configuration" of my desktop which is why there isn't any option for me to see if the laptop is recognizing the hard drive.

[mikehende]

Regarding the converter, this is taken from an ad on Ebay

Q: Can I recover my data with this?
A: Yes. In most cases, the drive itself is working. So you can use this to copy the data

If a drive is shot, how can the data be copied, can anyone explain this please?

[Seth]

Regarding the converter, this is taken from an ad on Ebay

Q: Can I recover my data with this?
A: Yes. In most cases, the drive itself is working. So you can use this to copy the data

If a drive is shot, how can the data be copied, can anyone explain this please?

What device is in the pcm slot? Does it have a power light on it? If you're sure there is no power to that slot, then I would suggest getting it professionally serviced. I wonder if the hard drive issue is related.

Provided that there is no read/write head damage to the drive (unlikely), then you should be able to recover the files from it.

Remember, the type of converter you need will depend on whether or not the laptop has a Sata type hard drive. On the drive itself, will be printed Sata (Serial ATA), or simply ATA.

[mikehende]

Called Compaq and will have them do a total workover on this laptop, will let you know what's damaged.

[mikehende]

Just got the laptop back from HP, they replaced the HDD, here's what's they did:

Problem:
Blue screen [Hard drive]
Customer OS failure

Parts replaced/action taken:
Software Re-Brick
Hard Drive

What is a software Rebrick?