[computer advice]Hard drive failure & new computer

Try putting it in the freezer for a while and then booting up with it again. I know it sounds wierd but it works sometimes. Actually, put it in another computer as a slave drive so that you can move the data easier and it won't crap on the whole computer when it dies again.

Data extraction from a company is hella expensive.

 

You might try connecting the drive up inside another desktop, if available, as a secondary drive. That way your not using the damaged drive for your OS. Just try and see if it is still readable enough to get off the files you need.

I personally like Dell or Gateway for computers. Maybe Toshibas have improved again, but they really went downhill several years ago. I have no opinion on Sony's. My mother-in-laws Compaq has held up pretty well considering she is a computer abuser. Avoid the IBM Stinkpad at all cost.

 

Easiest way to convince a corporate executive to routinely backup their files from their laptop to the company server. Give them the bill after you have had a company retrieve their data off a damaged hard drive.

 

It could also be the motherboard or the disk controller. My son's computer recently acted like it had a hard drive failure. He received messages such as "Unable to find OS" and others which implied it could not get to the hard drive or at least read it correctly.

He sent it in for warranty work and the controller and motherboard were replaced and the hard drives were left alone. When it was returned, it worked just fine and all his data was still on the drives.

 

No joke.

I have to disagree with you about IBM Thinkpads. I feel that they are some of the best laptops out with their prices being the only drawback.

 

With respect to a new comptuer, get the one of the new MacBook Pros which can dual boot into Windows.

 

Since it's a laptop it'll be a bit hard to slave it to a desktop. You can buy external cases for 2.5" hard dirves and connect it via usb. They run about 20-30 bucks, sometimes cheaper if you keep your eye out on those deal websites such as slickdeals or techbargains.

 

its not too hard to slave a laptop drive all you have to do is buy a 2.5->3.5 ide adapter and hook up the drive. the adapters cost anywhere from 6-10 bucks and are pretty simple to use if you have any sort of computer experience.
(open the case plug in the power adapter, connect the laptop drive, connect spare ide cable)

the adapter


of course if the drive is good and its the mobo that is bad the external case can be a good idea if the laptop is out of warranty and you end up buying a new laptop. external 2.5 drives are a really nifty tool to have since they are so portable.

 

Didn't even know they had the converter IDE cable. Does he even have a desktop though? Didn't see him mention that. The external case would allow him not to worry about opening up his PC and worrying about jumper settings if there are any to configure though. Just a bit more, but more convenient but expensive route.

 

no need to configure the jumper settings, and i had to assume he had a desktop, most people do.

 

Maybe they have improved. My bad experiences with IBM Thinkpads was back in the 90's.

 

I'm typing this on an IBM T43 Thinkpad that has been through a hellish year of law school and still looks and works like new.

If you live and die by your laptop, buy a Thinkpad (meaning $1200 to $2K+). If you just use it to surf the net, and you don't really commute with it, buy the cheapest Dell you can and assume you'll be replacing it in a year to two years (meaning < $600). If you want to look trendy, and don't mind the extra dough, get a MacBook, but you might want to wait until they do a refresh to work the 1st generation bugs out.

 

I just ordered a Dell XPS M1210. Pretty sturdy and portable (5 pounds or less depending on configuration).

Not to mention, it has great capabilities for multimedia (being an XPS system).

 

Try this:

Boot up the computer with the installation CD to get to the Dos-prompt, and run chkdsk. Heck turn it off and run chkdsk again for kicks. If the laptop can't read the drive, it might be hardware related.

Should that fix work, get all the back up your drive and run the dos-prompt again to reformat.

 

SamFisher, perhaps it would be better if you typed the exact "phrase" you saw from your mon. It could be your harddisk, it could be your disk controller as you mentioned that your system could not detect CD/DVD drives as well. You may want to check your original purchase order with Dell and see if you bought any extension of warranty period when you bought your laptop. Dell often offers such warranty extension in a favourable price as an optional item when you placed your order.

Regarding the notebook brands, I am not sure in US but Toshiba normally offers the longest warranty period amongst other brands. If you are doing some heavy duty stuff in your notebook, such as running software like oracle, SQL server, you may consider ThinkPad or Dell as they are relatively "stable" comparing to others. If you like your notebook to run entertainment stuff like watching movies, Sony or Sharp is good because their LCD monitors are better than others. If you would bring along your notebook to your clients frequently, you may want to have a light weight notebook with good outlook and long battery life and Fujitsu will be a good choice. And talking about the carrying weight, don't just look into the weight of your notebook but do ask the sales the weight of the power adapter and cells(battery) as well. People often ignore the weight of the power cord and power adpater but these are the items going along with your notebook in your briefcase. So it all depends on your actual needs.

Oh fyi, IBM sold their Thinkpad line to Lenovo, a Chinese company, and I think the production lines are in China as well, maybe not all of them. Some are not confident enough on the "Made in China" label so I think this is some information you need to know.

IMHO,

1. Warranty period and customer support is first thing to be considered for home users

2. Total weight, battery life is the first thing to be considered for outdoor users

and I bought a Thinkpad half year ago...

 

Something to consider is that Toshiba doesn't give you a Windows restore disk. They make you revert back to the original image of your operating system if there are any problems, which means if you don't have backups of the drive or don't know how to copy the hard drive with the dead OS to another computer, you're either going to lose your files or a lot of money.

My brother has a Toshiba, and one of the system files became corrupted to the point where his computer wouldn't boot. Any other computer I would have put in the restore disk and let it fix itself. Since I couldn't do that, I was going to pull the data for him off the hard drive and then revert to the factory image, but couldn't because the screws that held the hard drive in place in the computer came stripped. I don't remember what my folks ended up paying to a specialist to get all of his school work and stuff back.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a Toshiba for that reason. I've been told though that other computer companies are starting to do the same thing.