I was leaning on my laptop (the lower left hand corner) when all of a sudden my computer froze. A blue screen showed up and I had to restart my computer. When it restarted, it came up with a message saying that "primary hard disk drive 0 not found". I have SOO much summer and school work in there, and I'm freaking out. Is it too late to recover any data? I'm not sure whether I just knocked out my harddrive or actually damaged it.
2007-08-07 16:16:35 · 11 answers · asked by BUNguyenI 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Laptops & Notebooks
First of all, it doesn't really help telling me to do something that I should have done in the past when it won't help me get my data back now. Secondly, how in the hell can I install or boot up anything when it can't even boot up the primary harddrive and get past the start up screen? The only thing I am interested in is getting as much data back as possible.
2007-08-07 17:12:20 · update #1
it turns out the motherboard got messed up....
2007-08-14 18:58:09 · update #2
Ok,I very much doubt that just leaning on your laptop was what caused the problem,unless you have knocked a connector out of the hard drive,I even drove over my laptop last year and despite it having a cracked screen it still worked,but that doesn't help you.so the first thing I would do is check the website of the manufacturer and get on to their technical support team,they will be able to tell you whether the system has "gone to god" or just having a holiday.
I am doubtfull that the hard drive is totally croaked,as usually you would have seen it coming- slow boot up's,crashes etc for a few weeks before it died,so you may well be able to remove it from the laptop and recover your valuable data.
good luck anyway,hope it works out well.
2007-08-14 18:53:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately, that sounds like you broke your hard drive. If it is broken, a computer repair shop may be able to retrieve some of the data - but most of it will probably be unrecoverable.
I personally knocked my laptop out of the top bunk at school and broke my hard drive - our tech support guy was only able to recover one folder's worth of data (about 5 papers and some spreadsheets). All of my pictures and music were gone though.
It really depends on how badly damaged the hard drive is. The less damage, the more data will be recoverable.
2007-08-07 16:23:37 · answer #2 · answered by bevangel517 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even if you damaged your hard drive by leaning on it... you didn't lose any data. More than likely your connector got loose or your head actuator broke in some way. If it is still under warranty... I would call the manufacturer and see if they can get it working again (make sure they know you want your data).
2007-08-07 16:24:28 · answer #3 · answered by marleymang 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A number of both freeware/shareware utils exist which can reload the boot sector without damage to rest of drive... Norton Ghost has some nice diag/recovery tools and I think you can download a free/limited term/functionality trial version... And of course, you had all the valuable stuff backed up to DVD-RW?!?
Check the website of the drive manufacturer (Seagate,WesternDigital, Fujitsu, Maxstor, etc for diag utilities)
Good Luck!
2007-08-07 16:29:10 · answer #4 · answered by Smuxman 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Completely power off your PC (unplug it from the power socket). Open up the casing and try to tighten the power cord as well as the IDE cable on the harddrive as well as the motherboard.
I doubt that just because of leaning your harddrive will die unless it is 5 years old or so.
2007-08-07 16:21:46 · answer #5 · answered by marsulein 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have a range of unpleasant choices.
Forensic hard drive recovery is very expensive.
Start with calling the PC maker and talking to their tech support. They will walk you through diagnositic steps to determine if the hard drive is dead. If it is, then your only route is forensic recovery, or abandonment of all hope.
Lesson for the day: Back up all your personal files to cd.
2007-08-07 16:26:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My child. Seek professional help...
Okay, now that I've gotten my joke out of the way, I'm serious - there are companies out there that can help you with data recovery. My guess is you pinched it and will need professional help to retrieve the data.
2007-08-07 16:21:04 · answer #7 · answered by howtoms 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
try booting from the install discs. if that doesnt work well uuhh i cant really help it sounds like you physically broke the drive. if it just crashed you can put it in te freezer overnight and then put it inside an enclosure and try to get files off it
2007-08-07 16:30:05 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would have a pro open it up. laptops are a pain to work with inside. first try installing and booting knoppix http://www.knoppix.org/ and run that and see if your drive appears
2007-08-07 16:26:30 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no it sounds like u have a dead hard drive. u should of backed up ur data.
2007-08-07 16:21:21 · answer #10 · answered by Jake 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋