ive already bought a new one and the guys at best buy were of the opinion, after turning the computer on and hearing the super fun clicking noise it makes now, that theres pry not anything salvagable on it

so, since its pretty much a lost cause anyways, anybody know of any methods that work to atleast get it to boot up so i can get some documents off of it?

10/30/2005 8:27:23 PM

try the freezer trick

10/30/2005 8:28:13 PM

Clicking drives usually mean no hope.

You're only shot (without paying THOUSANDS of $$$ from a recovery shop) is to install it as a slave drive in a PC and see if you can see it in My Computer.

10/30/2005 8:28:42 PM

its a laptop harddrive

10/30/2005 8:29:57 PM

buy an enclosure for it

10/30/2005 8:30:53 PM

yeah put it as the slave drive

your computer doesnt boot up from it

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 8:39 PM. Reason : the enclosure thing is usb you could do that too(make sure usb 2.0)]

10/30/2005 8:38:26 PM

how do i put it as a slave drive?

10/30/2005 8:39:50 PM

rjr, its probably something you wont be able to do easily unless you are fairly savvy. Might be best to offer some cash to help you out.

10/30/2005 8:41:35 PM

i mean if i get directions on how to do it, i can
the problems ive had with computers have only been software, rather than hardware problems, so this is new to me

10/30/2005 8:44:32 PM

http://www.google.com

10/30/2005 8:47:53 PM

Quote :

"some cash"

Some as in a grand, right?

10/30/2005 8:49:46 PM

yea ive been looking on there, but a lot of it is companies that do data recovery, and thats not what im interested in

10/30/2005 8:50:07 PM

What type of laptop do you have. If it is a Thinkpad, I can help you.

10/30/2005 8:58:04 PM

an hp
i miss my thinkpad

if i get another laptop ill be going with a thinkpad, my first one was great

10/30/2005 8:59:34 PM

ummm

IBM doesn't use IBM harddrives in their laptops.

10/30/2005 9:01:28 PM

^ wtf.

They use IBM TravelStar drives.

10/30/2005 9:07:32 PM

oh really

things must have changed.

cuz last time I checked IBM laptop drives were bad.

Sorry

10/30/2005 9:08:40 PM

my dell came with an imb travelstar 20gb

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 9:13 PM. Reason : ^as shitty as i treated my computer mine lasted over 2.5 years]

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 9:13 PM. Reason : just shy of 3 years]

10/30/2005 9:12:40 PM

o you mean the hitachi deathstar drives

10/30/2005 9:18:06 PM

yea i just checked i have a hitachi travelstar 80gn

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 9:19 PM. Reason : mine lasted.... 13 months]

10/30/2005 9:19:17 PM

^^ IBM has the leading market share in laptop hard drives so they are in a lot of products. (IBM, Dell, Apple and many others use the OEM drives.) The runner-ups are Toshiba and Fujitsu.

For the desktop market Western Digital, Maxtor and Seagate lead it.

Quote :

"yea i just checked i have a hitachi travelstar 80gn"

The IBM TravelStar and Hitachi TravelStar is the same drive. As of January 6, 2003 IBM and Hitachi share the same mechanism.

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 9:28 PM. Reason : +]

10/30/2005 9:23:44 PM

oh i wasnt talking about the ibm drives, i was just saying what kinda hd i had

10/30/2005 9:29:53 PM

i bet this hd i bought off new egg dont last as long as the one my dell came with from ibm

10/30/2005 9:33:14 PM

Back to the topic:

Basically, you are screwed.

The ONLY hope you have is to get an external enclosure for it and:

#1 - Take the HDD out of the laptop and keep it in a freezer for a while and quickly try to get it to function in the enclosue.

#2 - When power is provided to the drive, lightly rock it from side to side. I have been able to get almost-dead drives to work after either rocking or torqing the drive.

If either of these options work, back your stuff up FAST. If you let the drive spin down, it likely will not spin up again.

10/30/2005 9:35:51 PM

RJR, if you can remove the drive for me, I might be able to see if I can mount it. But I'll have to do it at UNC, and you'll need to bring the drive to me. Cant promise anything, but I could try. You can message me.

10/30/2005 9:37:52 PM

oh i mean i already took the hd out, i took it out when they told me they pry could get anything off of it

yea ive been looking at enclosures on newegg
im just trying to figure out what specs i need - my old hd has a ATA-6 interface and a 2.5" form factor, but it says it has an IDE interface connector....

so i guess i need to get a 2.5" USB 2.0 with an IDE internal interface? w/ no AC adaptor?



the ATA-6 and IDE things are kinda confusing me, do i need to make sure an enclosure is ATA-6 compatable, or is an IDE automatically compatable with an ATA-6?



[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 9:47 PM. Reason : /]

10/30/2005 9:43:43 PM

i had one that was clicking really loud and wouldnt boot but worked as a slave drive

i dont know shit about it but that seemed weird

10/30/2005 9:49:51 PM

ok how do i get it to work as a slave drive? thats what im trying to figure out - is that what getting an external enclosure for it does?

10/30/2005 9:51:56 PM

my laptop harddrive started clicking on me, but i managed to boot from a linux live disc and copy my files to an exterior harddrive. not sure if that's something that'd work for you or not

10/30/2005 9:57:25 PM

buy the enclosure at best buy - return it when you are done - it's their free rental program

10/30/2005 10:00:42 PM

rjr. What you are trying to do is basically start this drive us as secondary storage. Its like turning your harddrive into a portable device like a memory stick or IPOD. With the external enclosure, which will use something like USB to connect to your computer, it will be autodetected like any other device once the drivers are installed. For this to work, you would need a working computer, and you would connect your harddrive installed in an external enclosure to this computer.

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 10:09 PM. Reason : .]

10/30/2005 10:06:57 PM

don't bother putting it as a slave drive. that will be a waste of time. There are a few recovery tools you can find for free through google.com (no i'm not being an ass with the google thing)

the best option is what everyone said, buy an enclosure from best buy for $50 use it, return it get all your money back. Thats what we did at Geeksquad anyway.

my mistake, its a laptop. It will cost a bit more money (temp at least). what you have to buy is the firelite portable harddrives, take it apart, remove the existing harddrive use the enclosure connection to make your laptop harddrive external, try and transfer the data then put the original harddrive back in and return for a full refund. This will cost you around $200 until you return it. But the firelite drives use the exact same conneciton as your laptop motherboard.

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 10:15 PM. Reason : fda]

10/30/2005 10:12:45 PM

hahahha

you worked for Geek Squad

10/30/2005 10:13:12 PM

HAHAHA I got paid 12.90/hr and offered $17/hr for double agent....so stfu

10/30/2005 10:15:29 PM

I hope you know you could get paid $22 an hour working on campus.

10/30/2005 10:17:47 PM

i hope you know that even if they offered me $50/hr i still wouldn't work for the State

10/30/2005 10:19:05 PM

Good luck being that guy at Geek Squad

10/30/2005 10:19:36 PM

thanks! except i'm not at geeksquad. my roommate is though.

[Edited on October 30, 2005 at 10:21 PM. Reason : fda]

10/30/2005 10:20:57 PM

ok so when i get my computer back with the new hd, get one of the enclosure thingies and see if i can get anything offa it that way?

10/31/2005 8:08:29 AM

yes, and as stated:

Quote :

"#1 - Take the HDD out of the laptop and keep it in a freezer for a while and quickly try to get it to function in the enclosue. #2 - When power is provided to the drive, lightly rock it from side to side. I have been able to get almost-dead drives to work after either rocking or torqing the drive."

10/31/2005 8:32:59 AM

awesome, thanks guys

10/31/2005 9:25:37 AM

Quote :

"return for a full refund. This will cost you around $200 until you return it. But the firelite drives use the exact same conneciton as your laptop motherboard."

so im not gonna hafta pay an open box/restock fee?

10/31/2005 12:53:23 PM

I don't why people have been posting such shitty advice that costs a lot of money unnecessarily. If your laptop drive is dead, all you need is one of these: http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=460984 available at your local intrex for ~$15 and a desktop computer.

10/31/2005 8:23:51 PM

how is that thing gonna work if the harddrive is fucked up

10/31/2005 8:40:59 PM

the same way an enclosure would. put the drive in a desktop, recover what's possible, although with a broken armiture (the clicking) it's highly unlikely you'll get anything. I'd also recommend one of the 5400rpm fluid bearing drives as a replacement from newegg

11/1/2005 1:48:50 AM