My Laptop hard drive clicks and won't boot up?

Question

I have a tochba sati;ite 4020 Cdt and when i start it up i see dos and them it starts clicking and i won't to know where it is broke or can be fixed

Answer 1

A hard drive that "clicks" and won't boot is usually a sign that the needle (reader) inside the hard drive is broken. Think of a computer's hard drive similar to an LP record, where the information is on a disk that is read by a needle (laser) that scans the surface of the disk.

The click sound is made when the reader (needle) won't scan across the disk either due to the reader itself is broken, or there is a dent or scratch on the surface of the hard drive that is preventing the reader from moving. If the reader can't move across the drive, it can't access the boot information files, and your OS won't load. This is usually not something you can fix without replacing the Hard Drive, but sometimes software on Hard Drives becomes corrupt, and can be repaired.

Here are some suggestions:

1) Boot the PC to Safe Mode: This is done by repeatedly pressing F8 during boot up. If you can access Safe Mode, run a scan disk with the thorough option enabled, and Repair errors option enabled. This will take a long time to complete, but it may restore your access to Normal Mode. If Scan Disk doesn't fix the problem, run a Virus Scan while you are in safe mode, there are some viruses that attack your Hard Drive software.

2) If you are unable to access Safe Mode, boot to DOS. Do this in WinXP by booting to a floppy disk. In some cases you may have to change the boot sequence in the BIOS. The bios is accessed by pressing F2 on boot up. I have only been able to get my PC to boot to DOS in Win XP with a Startup Disk, which can only be created in Normal Mode, so if don't have this already made, you may not be able to accomplish this.

If you CAN get to Safe Mode, at the C: prompt type in ChkDsk /r which will scan the Hard Drive for errors and repair them (If the errors are repairalble, some are not).

3) If you CAN get to DOS but chkdsk doesn't fix the problem, contact the manufacturer of the Hard Drive and ask them for a Disk Repair program. For example, Maxtor uses "Powermaxx", and Gateway uses "GWSCAN", etc. Most of the time these utilities are run from DOS, and in some cases they will fix any repairable Hard Drive errors. You can get to a working PC with internet access and put that program on a floppy disk, then bring it back to your PC and boot to the Floppy Disk.

4) If none of these things work, and you CAN get to Safe Mode, go back there and copy any important files to a Floppy Disk (you will need more than one). Your CD Burner drivers will be disabled in Safe Mode, so you can't burn your files to a CD. Then take the PC to the nearest PC repair shop. Ask them if their techs are A+ certified, if they are not, go to a shop where they are. The shop will either Write Zeros to the hard drive and re-install your OS, or they will replace the Hard Drive, much cheaper than a brand new PC.

If your PC is relatively new, and still under warranty, contact the Manufacturer and ask them to fix it for you.

5) If you want to try Installing a new Hard Drive yourself, or Writing Zeros and reloading the OS yourself, e-mail me.

Answer 2

I bought a new 100-gig notebook hard drive for $115 last week.

The reason I bring this up is that your hard drive is dead. OH, it might boot one more time, especially if you freeze it and keep it ice-cold while you run it, but basically It's Dead, Jim.

Answer 3

This is commonly known as 'the click of death'. The head mechanism inside your hard drive (the part that reads the information) is no longer working properly. Time for a new hard drive.

Answer 4

Joseph - The people that answered that it is not possible to recover data are incorrect. It is very possible to recover data from a hard drive that has failed, although I would recommend a professional takes care of it. If you want to try it yourself you would have to open the Drive and possibly either replace the board, replace the heads, bypass the firmware with a 3rd party software, or various other things could be wrong.

I would suggest contacting a data recovery specialist to get this done for you. There is one company that has a free analysis that I think you should contact. Here is their info: http://www.eprovided.com/digital-image-recovery.html

Give them a call and see what they say,

Good Luck!

Answer 5

The drive's reader is broken.
Buy a new drive at http://www.tigerdirect.com
To recover the data you would need to be in the FBI lol, that's how tough it is.

Answer 6

Sounds like your harddrive took a dump!

Answer 7

some dirt probalbly got inside it and some dust bunny makes it slower and unreadeable. vaccum it

Answer 8

thats worse than the blue screen of death