NationStates Jolt Archive

Heyho all,

A while back, my notebook's hard drive became terminally ill (i.e. it isn't dead, but was slowly deteriorating with each time I ran scandisk to fix it every time it crashes). I'm now on my way installing a new C: drive.

That's where insecurity strikes: I've never done this before, and there's bound to be a million and one ways to screw this up. I implore the few on NSG that know what they're talking about computer hardware-wise to lend some advice to help me avoid ruining an expensive investment in fixing my computer.

Edit: Since this appears to be unclear, I am talking about putting in a new hard disk.

*lends emotional support and promises not to laugh too hard*

Heyho all,

A while back, my notebook's hard drive became terminally ill (i.e. it isn't dead, but was slowly deteriorating with each time I ran scandisk to fix it every time it crashes). I'm now on my way installing a new C: drive.

That's where insecurity strikes: I've never done this before, and there's bound to be a million and one ways to screw this up. I implore the few on NSG that know what they're talking about computer hardware-wise to lend some advice to help me avoid ruining an expensive investment in fixing my computer.

Well it depends on how old the notebook actually is. Hard drives are mechanic in nature so they will deteriorate and stop working after a while, so if it is more than say... 4 years old you might actually need (at least) a new hard drive.

will there be a candy-based holiday associated with your resurrected hard drive? can there be bunnies too?

Don't snip the red wire.

will there be a candy-based holiday associated with your resurrected hard drive? can there be bunnies too?
There definitely should be bunnies.
Don't snip the red wire.
Sshhhh!

Just be careful and it should be easy.

That said, notebooks are always pests with hardware...

No.:(

Well it depends on how old the notebook actually is. Hard drives are mechanic in nature so they will deteriorate and stop working after a while, so if it is more than say... 4 years old you might actually need (at least) a new hard drive.A bit more than two years since I bought it (means no more warranty), and it's definitely busted. I have a new hard drive. I'm just a bit unsure as to how to install it.

will there be a candy-based holiday associated with your resurrected hard drive? can there be bunnies too?No.

Sounds like misaligned electrons. My advice is to very, VERY carefully remove the platter, careful not to get any cheeto crumbs and greasy fingerprints on it and slowly run a power magnet over it 6 or 7 times. That should realign the scrambled electrons and prevent further loss of data and at least help reduce the number of future crashes. Be sure to send it through the dishwasher once to get it all squeaky clean and take off any of the crumbs and prints you no doubt left on the shiny. When re-inserting the disk you need to make sure that the reader at the end of the arm is just barely touching the disk or is won't read it, but not too much or it'll scratch the damn thing and everything you have will be completely ruined. Once it is all put back together you'll want to run a benchmark program to make sure you didn't fuck everything up.

Sounds like misaligned electrons. My advice is to very, VERY carefully remove the platter, careful not to get any cheeto crumbs and greasy fingerprints on it and slowly run a power magnet over it 6 or 7 times. That should realign the scrambled electrons and prevent further loss of data and at least help reduce the number of future crashes. Be sure to send it through the dishwasher once to get it all squeaky clean and take off any of the crumbs and prints you no doubt left on the shiny. When re-inserting the disk you need to make sure that the reader at the end of the arm is just barely touching the disk or is won't read it, but not too much or it'll scratch the damn thing and everything you have will be completely ruined. Once it is all put back together you'll want to run a benchmark program to make sure you didn't fuck everything up.My spider-senses are tingling with "bad idea" written all over them...

:(It's only a hard drive, not the messiah.

It's only a hard drive, not the messiah.

Hard drives are the messiah.

My spider-senses are tingling with "bad idea" written all over them...

The idea of running a magnet over the hard drive or of putting it in a dishwasher?

Or should that have been 'bad ideas'?

I hope you have backups in case you can't copy stuff off this drive!
Laptop hard drives are not very long lived after they become faulty due to their environment (small confined space and lots of travel)

A bit more than two years since I bought it (means no more warranty), and it's definitely busted. I have a new hard drive. I'm just a bit unsure as to how to install it.

No.

Its simple the old hard drive should be behind a drawr or pannel usually marked with what looks like 3 CD's stacked on top of each other.

It usually is as simple as remove 1 or 2 screws, slide or lift out, remove the old mounting (usually some sort of wrap around mounting) mount the new drive in the same orientation (so pay attention which way was up and down relitive to the mounting

Then do the first few steps in reverse

Not much to watch out for except dont force it if it will not go, bending pins while not fatal is bad

Pretty simple

If you get me a model of the laptop I probably can find documentation on hard drive removal in their handbook

The idea of running a magnet over the hard drive or of putting it in a dishwasher?

Or should that have been 'bad ideas'?The Cheetos. We don't have them here, and I'd have to wait ages to import them.

I hope you have backups in case you can't copy stuff off this drive!
Laptop hard drives are not very long lived after they become faulty due to their environment (small confined space and lots of travel)

True, copy data ASAP off the drive

Its simple the old hard drive should be behind a drawr or pannel usually marked with what looks like 3 CD's stacked on top of each other.

It usually is as simple as remove 1 or 2 screws, slide or lift out, remove the old mounting (usually some sort of wrap around mounting) mount the new drive in the same orientation (so pay attention which way was up and down relitive to the mounting

Then do the first few steps in reverse

Not much to watch out for except dont force it if it will not go, bending pins while not fatal is bad

Pretty simple

If you get me a model of the laptop I probably can find documentation on hard drive removal in their handbookI was hoping you'd show up.

That part was easy. I tried using my Windows Recovery CDs when booting it up, and that failed. Any advice on how to deal with that?

I was hoping you'd show up.

That part was easy. I tried using my Windows Recovery CDs when booting it up, and that failed. Any advice on how to deal with that?

Did it try to boot to CD or did it not even try? if it did not even try usually it is just boot order setting

there are 2 ways to change the boot order
1) If your machine has a boot menu (should display the key combination) often ESC and select the CD rom drive
2) Enter BIOS or "Setup" (can be a bunch of different ones but commonly F2 or F10)

Go into the boot menu or selection (differs on the bios) and make sure that the CD rom is before the HDD in the list (can be first)

I hope you have backups in case you can't copy stuff off this drive!
Laptop hard drives are not very long lived after they become faulty due to their environment (small confined space and lots of travel)Everything I value is safely located on my external hard drive. No worries there.

Did it try to boot to CD or did it not even try? if it did not even try usually it is just boot order setting

there are 2 ways to change the boot order
1) If your machine has a boot menu (should display the key combination) often ESC and select the CD rom drive
2) Enter BIOS or "Setup" (can be a bunch of different ones but commonly F2 or F10)

Go into the boot menu or selection (differs on the bios) and make sure that the CD rom is before the HDD in the list (can be first)It failed later on during the process. Booting from the CD was fine until it came to the actual question of whether I wanted to start the recovery process, with a Y/N question. I got a loud *beep* every time I pressed Y and ended up pressing N.

It failed later on during the process. Booting from the CD was fine until it came to the actual question of whether I wanted to start the recovery process, with a Y/N question. I got a loud *beep* every time I pressed Y and ended up pressing N.

What brand of laptop is this? I know the old Compaqs had the BIOS on a partition on the hard drive which isn't the case with the new ones.

What brand of laptop is this? I know the old Compaqs had the BIOS on a partition on the hard drive which isn't the case with the new ones.Brand is ASUS.

If you get me a model of the laptop I probably can find documentation on hard drive removal in their handbookASUS A7V series (sans webcam), I think. I'll check to make sure.

The time warp is rather annoying...

Brand is ASUS.

Sounds like this may be as Jeruselem said and it trys to pull off a hard drive partition. If this is the case you may have to find a copy of MS windows that is the full version.

What version of windows is it?

Sounds like this may be as Jeruselem said and it trys to pull off a hard drive partition. If this is the case you may have to find a copy of MS windows that is the full version.

What version of windows is it?XP. We're using a different CD for Windows now. Seems to be working. I'm a bit worried that it may cause problems due to it not being the one with the computer. I still have to reinstall all the drivers, and if recovering the drive failed, I'm wondering how I'll be able to do that.

Brand is ASUS.

OK, I have an ASUS A8JP! (My old one was an old Compaq).
Haven't used recovery CDs yet (thank God).

I think the recovery CD is attempting to get a recovery partition which isn't there because it is a new drive.
ASUS installs a hidden recovery partition. It is not needed if you use standard bootable CD/DVD.

XP. We're using a different CD for Windows now. Seems to be working. I'm a bit worried that it may cause problems due to it not being the one with the computer. I still have to reinstall all the drivers, and if recovering the drive failed, I'm wondering how I'll be able to do that.

The only real problems (excepting CD Key problems) are drivers and thoes should be able to be hunted down one by one ...

I am going to run home ... got to get food before doing some major work on an MS exchange server tonight.

Ill be around though

The only real problems (excepting CD Key problems) are drivers and thoes should be able to be hunted down one by one ...

I am going to run home ... got to get food before doing some major work on an MS exchange server tonight.

Ill be around though

And they are probably on the recovery discs somewhere!

OK, I have an ASUS A8JP! (My old one was an old Compaq).
Haven't used recovery CDs yet (thank God).

I think the recovery CD is attempting to get a recovery partition which isn't there because it is a new drive.Could be. I was guessing that it was because I had a new drive and ASUS did some things to avoid losing out on getting paid to put in a new hard drive. Amounts to the same thing, I guess.

The only real problems (excepting CD Key problems) are drivers and thoes should be able to be hunted down one by one ...

I am going to run home ... got to get food before doing some major work on an MS exchange server tonight.

Ill be around thoughThanks so far =)

i just had to replace my hard drive after it quit on me. lost everything pictures documents and even remembered passwords and user names.

And they are probably on the recovery discs somewhere!

Yeah but it sounds from what I caught on some forums that ASUS has it as part of the install process, not sure if you will just be able to browse to them in normal operation after windows install

Yeah but it sounds from what I caught on some forums that ASUS has it as part of the install process, not sure if you will just be able to browse to them in normal operation after windows install

A bit like the Compaq ones where they hide drivers under totally obscure filenames like Softpaq 479340430.

Yeah but it sounds from what I caught on some forums that ASUS has it as part of the install process, not sure if you will just be able to browse to them in normal operation after windows installYeah, unfortunately windows can't find them on the recovery CDs... I've been downloading them manually and putting them on my external.

Does anyone have an idea how I can set my windows key to the one on my computer, as opposed to the one I had to use to get the installation working?

Yeah, unfortunately windows can't find them on the recovery CDs... I've been downloading them manually and putting them on my external.

Does anyone have an idea how I can set my windows key to the one on my computer, as opposed to the one I had to use to get the installation working?

Its complicated but the steps are well layed out

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/ht/changexpkey.htm

A bit like the Compaq ones where they hide drivers under totally obscure filenames like Softpaq 479340430.

Yeah or they use the EXE or MSI installers without the drivers directly or all kinds of silly ways

Yeah, unfortunately windows can't find them on the recovery CDs... I've been downloading them manually and putting them on my external.

Does anyone have an idea how I can set my windows key to the one on my computer, as opposed to the one I had to use to get the installation working?

Don't forget the special software with enables the special buttons on the laptop to work. Windows will not autodetect those.

When Windows is working again, make an image of the new hard drive to your external one so you can re-image a working Windows install back should go all bad. Use something like Acronis or Ghost.