Bust laptop

Its, official, my christmas has been ruined by my broken laptop.

I was simply browsing the web when it suddenly switched itself off. Now when I turn it back on, I get the error message saying 'no drive detected'.

It's looking increasingly likely that Ive lost everything on it, including all my videos of the babes, college work, saved games etc.

Dell say they will take the laptop in and just replace any faulty components, which includes the hard drive. Meaning I would certainly lose any information that might be on there. So Im still holding out for a possible solution.


This is just a post to let of steam, let me know if you've ever had it happen to you. Also if you feel you know any way at all that the data might be recoverable, please let me know!

Dude there are 2 options I know;

1: take it to PC world and they have a Data recovery service that you can try don't know how exactly it works :-(

2: You can do a clean install of your laptop and there is an option that says 'keep files and it will be saved on MY OLD DISK STRUCTURE' I have done this but the problem is that when I did do it I couldn't access it because it said was for another user.

I hope this helps, sorry to hear about yous laptop dude, happend to my in my last year of uni.

justblaze Wrote:1: take it to PC world and they have a Data recovery service that you can try don't know how exactly it works :-(

I personally would NOT advise this. I wouldnt trust the guys at PC World with a pen and peice of paper yet alone my valuable data!

However if there is someone you know close by who knows about computers, he/she should be able to pop ur laptop hard drive out on stick it in a desktop to see if anything is recoverable. Theres also local computer shops which should be able to do this for you, might cost a little tho!

justblaze Wrote:2: You can do a clean install of your laptop and there is an option that says 'keep files and it will be saved on MY OLD DISK STRUCTURE' I have done this but the problem is that when I did do it I couldn't access it because it said was for another user.

This can be dont but like justblaze says you could run into a minefield of problems.

You did say tho that no drive was detected so if the drive is bust option 2 will deffo not work and it really slims the chances of option 1 working!

It may be a simple loose connection. Do you know if the laptop has been dropped knocked recently? You could try taking the covers off the bottom and making sure all the connections are seated properly and all might spring back into life!

Good luck buddy

You could hunt around for hirens boot cd online which has drive recovery tools your probably need another drive to recover any data too (Depends if the drive interface controller is blown or not), the bottom line though is always have some form of backup and try to have at least two. I use small external hard discs and USB Flash drives, you get into a habit of it after you have had a drive die one too many times...

Well unless the BIOS has decided to change the HDD settings sounds most likely the HDD has failed, especially as it was after the power cut out as that suggests it may have crashed the drive heads against the platter. Having said that though, if your lucky it could be a dodgy power connector that caused the failure and now no power to the drive, it is a lot less likely though.
If a failed drive is the case then most local computer stores won't be able to pull the data off for you as data recovery from a failed drive is a specialist area. Whilst I don't trust PC World either I do believe their data recovery would attempt a fair go at this. The only other option normally would be someone that specializes in data recovery off failed drives.
Be warned though, depending on the actual fault on the drive the cost and effectiveness of recovering the data will vary so you'd better start thinking hard in monetary values just how important that data is.

In my experience as an IT Consultant you'd be surprised how some people can have 'important' data on their drives but when they find out how much it can cost to get that data back it isn't something they are willing to pay for

Maplin sell a gizmo that can connect an IDE/SATA drive taken from another pc via usb.
Obviously you will need access to another pc to connect the drive to. Once connected the drive shows up as another USB storage device. You can then copy your files to the pc or memory stick etc.

tapit54 Wrote:Maplin sell a gizmo that can connect an IDE/SATA drive taken from another pc via usb.
Obviously you will need access to another pc to connect the drive to. Once connected the drive shows up as another USB storage device. You can then copy your files to the pc or memory stick etc.

External drive housings are 10 a penny but laptop HDDs are a different size 2.5" not 3.5" so make sure it is the correct one. This is also making the assumption the drive is modular and removable from the laptop without taking the machine apart
Having said that I don't think this is going to be a solution in this case.
In the unlikely case the drive is still functional however chances are you are going to then run the gauntlet of file ownership to be able to access the files stored within the user profiles so not as simple as plug and play even if everything is still working

cheers for your replies guys. TBH the technical info goes straight over my head, Red, what is a bios?

sorry if im being really dumb here but I just use laptop, i font get how it works.

Also, pc world is out of the question because they dont accept dell laptops and pcs

BIOS is in basic terms the little bit of info that tells the PC how to start up and what is inside the machine. It's the bit that is starting up and is reporting back the no drive detected in your case. If you've rung Dell they should have already taken you into this over the phone to make sure it is set correctly as far as drive detection is concerned unless it is one of the newer breed of laptops that some manufacturers seem to be releasing with that option hidden.

You're correct in that PC World won't repair your laptop, they don't even repair the Dell laptops they sell themselves, they are dealt with by Dell. They will however do data recovery on anything as that is a completely different service. I'm guessing it depends on if the drive is easily accessible as they'll be wary about ripping apart a laptop as they have no facility to fix it if they break it and some laptops can be a mare to take apart without breaking something

You want to look for DiskWarrior
Which is very good. Restores files and cleans up any other problems