sister dropped laptop

copeyhagen

hey,

I have a fujitsu siemens v5535, 3 gig ram, 160gb hd. it came with vista but the day i bought it i installed xp as i was running programs that werent stable on vista at the time.

anyways, my sister was using it a few weeks ago at home and dropped it about 1 foot onto our wooden floor.

now on bootup, it beeps 5 times, pauses, beeps another 5 times then says "operating system not found"

now im not too worried about the laptop itself, i plan on buying a macbook around xmas anyways.

what i am worried about is all the files on the hdd that i hadnt copied over to my portable yet that i really need.

a) is the hard drive screwed? would a fresh install sort it or is it mechanically fooked?

b) if i buy a 2.5 external sata hdd usb case will i be able to recover my files from it?

c) if b worked, could i then put the drive back into the laptop and run a fresh xp install?

Thanks a million for help

Rob

robbie_998

hi rob... im rob too :P

it may very well be that the hard drive has some kind of malfunction due to dropping but in saying that it might have just moved from it socked, maybe make sure its all in correctly and securely and try to resolve the issue.

will not work in this case if the hard drive is not being found but if your external had an OS on it you could boot your laptop but i dont think there is a way to do that.

anyway ive done worse to my laptop, dropped twice from about 2 feet onto wooden floors and still never a problem,

like is said, just fit everything again incase they were removed from their sockets with the fall.

copeyhagen

cheers rob! ill check the connections later

yeh she said she only let it drop like a foot so hopefully it came out of the socket

ill get back to ya
cheers

copeyhagen

ok, checked connections, everything seemed fine, took hd out and put it back in to be sure.

boot up, "operating system not found"

so i went into the bios to check the boot priority and under hdd it says [none]

any way i can retrieve my files?!

robbie_998

theres really only two things i can think off here,

if you can get another laptop/computer that can take more than 1 HD then maybe boot from the HD and then go to computer and see if your HD will show as additional HD.

the other option would be to boot from a disc like windows disc but theres a good chance you'll lose your files,

option 1 seems a good one, if you were to bring it to pc world thats what they'll most likely do. i honestly couldnt tell you how much it would cost for pc world to do it.

Download Ubuntu, run it as a Live CD and transfer your files to a usb key. If you have no internet access go to an internet cafe. If you can't access the files still you know the hard drive is ****ed and you won't have thrown more money away on a usb enclosure or PC World.

MunsterCycling

That is good advise there Iker Glamorous Puppeteer, OP where abouts in the country are you, can take a look at it for you if you are nearby as that's what I do for a living but if using a live cd it doesn't show up then its FUBAR'd

copeyhagen

im in dublin.

so i get ubuntu, put it on a cd and try boot the laptop using the cd?

cheers for the replies

spartacus93

copeyhagen wrote: »

so i get ubuntu, put it on a cd and try boot the laptop using the cd?

Yep, Download the live version and follow the instructions on their site to create a bootable disk.

The live version of the operating system doesn't require a hard drive to work, it just uses your cd - drive and your ram.

If the hard drive is still fractioning ok you will be able to access your files using ubuntu an be able to copy them onto a USB key.

The fact that it says none in the bios under hard drive is quite a bad sign imo. If the bios doesn't detect it, ubuntu won't either.

copeyhagen

cheers for the info. ill give it a try 2moro and keep you updated.

cheers

spartacus93

spartacus93 wrote: »

Yep, Download the live version and follow the instructions on their site to create a bootable disk.

For Ubuntu there's no specific live version and no instructions on the site. You just download the latest release (9.04), burn it to a cd and pop it in your cd drive.

It'll boot from the cd (if not then change the BIOS to boot from the CDROM). You'll get a menu of options and you select the one (the first option at the very top) which allows you to try it without installing it to the hard drive.

copeyhagen

ok, done the above, booted up uguntu, when i click on places/computer, all thats visible is the dvd drive and filesystem.

filesystem simply appears to be the uguntu directories from the cd.

am i screwed? if i brought it to one of them pc doctor places would there be a chance of recovery

copeyhagen

copeyhagen wrote: »

ok, done the above, booted up uguntu, when i click on places/computer, all thats visible is the dvd drive and filesystem.

filesystem simply appears to be the uguntu directories from the cd.

am i screwed? if i brought it to one of them pc doctor places would there be a chance of recovery

If you're running Ubuntu as a LiveCD like I said earlier then it should auto mount the hard drive on start up. I don't know anything about faulty hard drives....anybody?

Alanstrainor

Whenever i've booted into ubuntu from a cd the hard disks just show up. Although they sometimes need a bit of terminal work to get into the files.

copeyhagen

if the bios isnt picking it up i dont think the ubuntu will be able to find it anyways. ill boot it up again tonight

zippy1979

you could buy a sata/ide to usb cable on ebay for aroung 5 euro
you could then plug you hd into any pc via usb and copy your files to the pc then format your hd plug it back in to your laptop then try to reload windows if this works you can then transfer you files back on to your laptop with a usb key
might be worth a try it more or less turns your hd into an external hardrive if your pc does not see your laptop hd you can refesh it in Computer Management in control panel
hope this helps

zippy1979

zippy1979 wrote: »

you could buy a sata/ide to usb cable on ebay for aroung 5 euro
you could then plug you hd into any pc via usb and copy your files to the pc then format your hd plug it back in to your laptop then try to reload windows if this works you can then transfer you files back on to your laptop with a usb key
might be worth a try it more or less turns your hd into an external hardrive if your pc does not see your laptop hd you can refesh it in Computer Management in control panel
hope this helps

But if the HD is damaged after the fall the cable won't work either?

copeyhagen

zippy1979 wrote: »

you could buy a sata/ide to usb cable on ebay for aroung 5 euro
you could then plug you hd into any pc via usb and copy your files to the pc then format your hd plug it back in to your laptop then try to reload windows if this works you can then transfer you files back on to your laptop with a usb key
might be worth a try it more or less turns your hd into an external hardrive if your pc does not see your laptop hd you can refesh it in Computer Management in control panel
hope this helps

cheers i was sayin at the start i was thinkin of buyin a usb sata usb case. which is what your talking about. but as pointed out its probably the hard drive itself thats damaged.

zippy1979

well i was thinking for the sake of a fiver it might be worth a shot
and at least you will be able to tell if the hd is running or not
i just think its unlikey that the hd has total failure
let us know how you get on

MunsterCycling

If the drive is SATA then the connectors for desktop and laptop are the same so if you had a sata destop you could connect it to that.

MC

copeyhagen

good thinkin munster my desktop is sata

cheers