hard drive on computer went bye bye By scooter49 (Read 463 times)

[scooter49]

nnow stuck  on    ipad....sucks

[LUKE]

forget about the desk top,IBM,compaq they are all a thing of the past,, ipad air is the way to go nowadays!

this is the only way to feel young, well aside from having a mistress , LOL,,,

[twowheeler]

And guess where the Ipad is made?.......CHINA!

I knew sooner or later youd come over. I know, baby steps but soon youll have a Taotao in the driveway!

[jct842]

luke has no idea how many china parts are in his ride, yamaha partnered with mainland china in 1992. Partners usually buy or trade products don't they?

[cyborg]

Change out the drive,,,with a seagate super drive,,,the mac i had at the shop blew out the drive,,,,went to fry's electronics got the seagate,,,changed it out in less than an hour,,loaded it with snow leopard ,,wow the thing has never been faster,,it is better than new,,and i don't know sh!t from shineola about computers,,watched a tutorial on youtube ,,,,BAM !!!!! instant super computer

[Bashan]

How do you know it was the hard drive? Will it boot? Was it showing S.M.A.R.T. or blue screen? I can give you a website to download a blue screen of death code reader. If the optical drive will open I can give you a URL where you can get an ISO file and burn it to a CD to boot off of the optical, won't even need the hard drive. Then you can run some diagnostics. There's also USB boots if the optical is stuck but they're more problematic. Sometimes the power supply will imitate a hard drive failure. If you have the rocker switch on your PSU turn it off (the zero) for ten minutes and turn it back on. It gives the capacitors a chance to discharge and recycle. Then turn it on with the rocker. It may boot with the on button, nothing ventured. When you hit the rocker to "on" if it buzzes loudly you need a PSU and it probably trashed the mother board.

Sometimes the RAM chips will cause what seems to be a hard drive failure or even a PSU failure. On the latter I don't have an explanation. I recommend to my clients setting the BIOS to boot the optical drive first, a USB second, and the hard drive third. It adds about 5 seconds to the boot but if you need the optical to boot it's set up for you. While you're in the BIOS set it to quick boot and it will negate the boot lag from not having the HDD first. Getting into the BIOS requires a reboot and then hitting repeatedly: escape, enter, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12, try them in that order. Did I miss one? Maybe F8. OK, you're still toast?

Pull the hard disc, install it in another computer. If it has any life it will boot as the slave drive then you can clone it to a good hard drive. I have one client that I did that for and he refused to clone it. It works just fine as a second hard drive and it's been a year. Here's how hard it is: take the suspect hard drive out by unplugging the data cord from the mother board, and then the power cord from the PSU, and then..oh wait...THAT'S IT! Pull it out of there. But installing it in the other computer is the real PITA. Let's see, plug the data cord into the next SATA connection on the motherboard. You can tell which one it is because if you look carefully at the board it will say SATA 1, SATA 2, SATA 3 etc. When you hit a SATA that isn't filled...PLUG IT IN! Then the power supply, um...plug the cord in from the PSU in the host computer that...um....FITS! Boot up and the second drive will show up on the start button menu under computer as another drive. Now, the operating systems must be the same and the primary hard drive's OS will run the show. But you can bring up the second hard drive just like you'd bring up a camera or USB as a drive. Don't can your hard drive just yet scooter 49, PM me if you wish. I might be able to help. By the way folks, he's going to kill me, but our own Alleyoop has a degree in computer science and was a programmer for a major corporation! Well allright! That's who we have on our staff! He da man, I'm proud of him. But don't ask him about computer problems, he's busy enough. Rich

[jct842]

Then there is me....I don't really know crap about computers but I have built 3 from brand new parts so far in the last 12 years, I can follow instructions to a degree is all I have going for me. Instructions are all over the internet. Can't stand bill gates or his microsoft garbage so I learned just enough to load up linux when winxp came out and have not looked back since.

[Alleyoop]

A hard drive and just about anything in a computer is plug and play hard drives unplug plug the new one in format the sucker and load the sucker up with your system. Memory cards pull them out plug in the new ones easy as pie.
On the one I use I have two systems XP and 7 and i can boot anyone up, i also have two drives in it.
Alleyoop

[cyborg]

mine took a poo,,,i took it in for a diagnosis and then did my work on it,, i don't know enough to diagnose ,,,i

[Bashan]

Don't let 'em take advantage Cyborg, at least ask me first. Like Alley says, the new operating systems are plug and play....pretty much. JCT842 knows a lot more than he lets on but don't ask him, he charges Gates $400.00/hour. Never been a shy one that John. A poo Cyborg?...seriously.....a .....pooooo. OK, you guys wonder why I won't let you pick me up at the airport. There is your answer...computer poo.

Alley....sshhh...quiet man...shhh...they're listening man..we dis..cussed...this. Ah heh!

[cyborg]

A poo

[scooter49]

Yes, I done a test on computer to see what it was. Hard Drive failed the test. It flashed the Compaq logo, and immediately says Push control Alt Delete to open-- I press it-- the Compaq logo appears again- than the screen says again- Press control Alt Delete to open. Repeats the same message. I went into pressing esc button repeatedly and fast- a SCREEN appear from Microsoft telling me to run test. Memory actually was ok.. Hard Drive failed twice.

Searched a few sites on wifes computer. One place had the hard drive for $60.. So I was thinking $60 isn't bad, but than I read more about it. It does not come with Windows- that one must download from another disc. I found the disc for about $14.00 to renew my computer to factory specs. My computer is a Compaq Presario CQ56.. So roughly $75 to repair it like new. Now, some were wondering about data stored on my computer- good news- I don't use the computer in that way. I am the type that likes shopping for good deals, visit scooter forums, and take photos. I was not out anything valuable.

I did make a recovery disc, but moving around so often, I could not tell anyone where it is. Moved 4 times in a little over 12 months.

And there is always another way. Could switch from a 7 inch ipad to a 10 inch ipad. More memory but still confusing as can be about trying to type anything correctly. Could buy a notebook, but they cost as much as a computer. The 10 inch ipad one can get as little as $120.

[Bashan]

The repair and recovery disc isn't all that tasty. If you have the BIOS set to boot off of the optical drive at least it will hopefully come alive long enough to do a hail Mary. The recovery portion of the disc allows you to restore off of a system image if you made one. You can also restore off of the restore points Windows automatically makes or one that you told it to make. However, if the hard disc drive is corrupt you can't restore to a bad disc. If it's physically damaged you can't repair that. The repair and recover disc has a startup diagnostic and a memory diagnostic. I just ran the memory diagnostic last week on this lady's E-machine. The program said that there was a hardware issue and I should contact the manufacturer....wow ...thanks. However, there's software like Recuva to snag seemingly lost files. There's also Acronis to clone a drive that seems to be beyond hope. Windows is pretty hinky about their operating systems. You can transfer your OS to another hard drive as a secondary drive, I've did it many times. However, if you try to transfer an OS to another blank computer without an OS the mother board has an electronic signature and it probably won't fly. There's a big difference between installing a new OS on a computer and transferring one from a dying hard drive. Actually the people at Microsoft are actually kinda nice. If you call them and tell them what you're doing and why they'll OK a transfer at least once, sometimes more. However, their official policy is one new OS per new computer. You can't keep transferring an OS to new computers as the components fail. Why am I going on about this? I'm sorry, I gibber sometimes.

Hey, are you interested in a new tower PC? I've got enough components around the shop to build 4 new computers. All of my builds are one TB and 8 gigs DDR3 RAM. My video cards aren't powerful enough for gaming though. Some of those cards are piggy back and $500.00!! My builds come with a Wifi card, video card with HDMI port, and a one year bumper to bumper warranty including virus removal and remote service. If you want a laptop or tablet I can't help you.