Laptop HDD Fail

DannyDMR

DannyDMR

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Evening all

I need some help, my hard drive in my laptop failed today, can't do anything with it, it boots to starting up screen then does nothing, i tried to format it but it won't have none of it.

So i have had to get another hdd which i have done and am now on the laptop. thing is i have everything backed up except my emails, i need to get on the failed hdd to get them, is there a way i can connect it to my laptop via USB?
 
DannyDMR said:
Evening all

I need some help, my hard drive in my laptop failed today, can't do anything with it, it boots to starting up screen then does nothing, i tried to format it but it won't have none of it.

So i have had to get another hdd which i have done and am now on the laptop. thing is i have everything backed up except my emails, i need to get on the failed hdd to get them, is there a way i can connect it to my laptop via USB?
Click to expand...

You can get an external USB enclosure.. However some laptop hard drives have non standard connectors
 
DannyDMR said:
Evening all
i tried to format it but it won't have none of it.
Click to expand...

That's not going to have helped! how/why did you try that?

DannyDMR said:
is there a way i can connect it to my laptop via USB?
Click to expand...

Easiest way would be to take the drive out, or look up on the net what kind of HDD you have in the laptop.

for £25 I purchased a multi standard enclosure from Maplin. It takes IDE & SATA drives...

Gareth.
 
My hdd is partitioned, so i tried to format and install windows on partition 2 so i could load that up and copy from partition 1 to external hdd, which is what i have now done. Partition 2 works fine nothing wrong at all but copying files from partition 1 takes ages and not all files are being transferred. so something is up with partition 1. Doesn't make sence to me but hey ho
 
Do you get any error messages while trying to transfer?

My niece had this on her laptop and it turned out it was some kind of malware.

Try running a few malware progs.

Or if you have something like Drivescrubber to totally wipe the HD try that.

If it can't complete then the HD is knackered - how old is it?

.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like some sectors are failing (unless there's also an unusual mechanical noise which might indicate physical damage).

Assuming windows and if I'm reading right that the disk is connected and functional to a certain extent...

Open up file explorer and right click on the drive that is failing. Properties->Tools->Error Checking and tell it to check and fix everything on the drive that is failing.

It will probably tell you to reboot and it will take an age to check the disk. You will probably lose a small number of files but that will be about the best you can do easily to recover the disk.
 
it does sound a bit like hardware fault rather than malware. if there was malware on partition 1 then it wouldnt be being executed by booting to partition 2.

if what andy suggests doesnt help you could also try downloading the BART boot CD, connect up a USB and boot to the CD and try copying the files that way using its file manager.
 
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