HELP! - Computer Geeks

[redfishbluefish]

I’m having a he!! Of a week….my neighbor dies, my pool cleaner dies, and now my computer dies. It’s the week of death. (And I won't mention what the stock market did today!)

I was looking at my computer while making a recipe and I turn around to find the next ingredient, and it’s crapped out. It didn’t get wet, it was just sitting there and bam. When I reboot I hear a click and then this:

I’m thinking the hard drive is crapped out. What do I do? This thing is maybe two years old, if that old.


I don’t know if it matters, but it’s an Acer Netbook.

 

[lefkonj]

Do you have an install disk for windows? I have several and can make you one, if you want to stop by. If the install disk doesn't see the drive then its dead, simple to replace but the data will be your challenge, not sure how much you had on there.

 

[lefkonj]

Not sure how comfortable you are opening the system up, but you can open up and see if you feel it spin. Once again its a laptop so you could just bring it to me in marlboro if you want to take a look.

 

[Chrisgarrick]

I might have an extra drive. Pm me. If I do I'll do a fresh install for you

 

[TanksNStuff]

Paul, looking at that error message, I can tell you that there is definitely an issue with your harddrive. When the computer boots up, it will check for several pieces of hardware (in a specific order) to find a boot sector, which would tell the BIOS how to proceed. Usually, the order would be: Floppy drive (A: ), CD/DVD drive (usually D: or E:, depending on if you have more than one harddrive and/or if your single hard drive has multiple partitions), then your harddrive (C: ), and finally a LAN/Ethernet connection (which would try to connect to a network server for boot info).

Since it's giving the Ethernet Controller error, that means the BIOS didn't detect the first 3 choices (floppy-CD/DVD-Harddrive) and is trying to boot over the network. Pretty certain you don't have it setup for that option so it gave you that error. If you put in a bootable CD/DVD and reboot, it should read that before getting to the ethernet boot option, and let you repair or reinstall to correct this.

However, since it didn't detect the Harddrive, then you have 1 of 2 problems to fix first:

1. Check all the cables between the harddrive and the motherboard. This is not a scary task. Just open up the laptop and push on both ends of the cables. You will have both a power supply cable (which comes from your PSU and plugs into the HDD) and another cable that will attach from the HDD to the motherboard. This will probably be a skinny red cable about 1/2" wide, or it could be the older style that are white/gray ribbons that are about 2" wide. Either way, there will be a black connector on the ends that you will need to make sure are fully seated.

2. If the cables are fully seated, then you have a damaged HDD. You will need to replace it before you can boot up again.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Thanks for the multiple responses.


I have no problem opening up the computer:

The hard drive cable is attached to the hard drive with screws….everything looks tight. Now someone told me to remove the hard drive and put it in the freezer for a couple hours. Sometimes this works and you can then access the hard drive. Should I try that?

And by the way, this computer has no other “drives”…..just the hard drive and a slot for an SD card. I do have an external CD reader/writer for my older Acer, but it was never used on this one. I don’t know if it would be recognized.

Once again its a laptop so you could just bring it to me in marlboro if you want to take a look.

Thanks for the offer. I might take you up on that. Unfortunately I’m tied up all day Saturday and Sunday. Would you be available anytime during the week…..I don’t work, so it could be anytime.

I might have an extra drive. Pm me. If I do I'll do a fresh install for you

Thanks for the offer Chris. I’m actually more concerned in recovering the photos and documents on the hard drive. I want to see what I could do in that regard first.

 

[lefkonj]

I am around during the week so just let me know. Putting the drive in the freezer is a horrible idea, that is a total Internet Myth. If the drive won't spin up again, you can stop by best buy or on amazon and grab a new one. Simple to install and easy to fix. The data is really your only big deal.

 

[TanksNStuff]

I am around during the week so just let me know. Putting the drive in the freezer is a horrible idea, that is a total Internet Myth. If the drive won't spin up again, you can stop by best buy or on amazon and grab a new one. Simple to install and easy to fix. The data is really your only big deal.

+1 I doubt putting it in the freezer would do anything to help.

It's possible that the HDD could get too hot and cause issues, but that would be the only "fix" that a freezer could provide. I'm sure if it was overheating that caused this to begin with, it would have been "fixed" after cooling down on it's own by now.

On a side note, overheating is a major problem for most laptops. I highly recommend getting a laptop cooling pad like one of these to prevent heating issues:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=laptop+cooling+pad&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[lefkonj]

The issue with the freezer is that when it comes out of the freezer it will immediately start to get condensation on it, including the internals. Then when it spins up the heads will be dragged through the water, not good no matter what you are doing. I say let's try to get the drive spinning again and if we can't get a new one in there so the machine works. We can then use an external adapter to see what the story is with the drive. If the data is that important you can send it somewhere and pay for them to get the data, unless it was literally burned they can get stuff off.

 

[SHLUZER]

definitely don't put it in freezer. As someone else said, condensation...Tried it. got unrecoverable harddrive.
If disk spinns, there are programs that will recover data even if boot sectors lost, or files were deleted (some even recover formatted data).
Last resort - Kroll data recovery. For about 70$ they can evaluate what can be recovered. And they are top professionals (unless you have connections in FBI). Lastly - harddrives installed on Dell/HP for the last 10 years have average lifespan of 2 years. So, backup.