Fixing HD from ubuntu live USB.

EGriff

My friends laptop won't boot from the hard drive, it gives me a message about checking the disk for errors, then says unknown error (766f6c756d652e63 3f1). After this it just hangs at the windows splash screen.

I booted from an ubuntu live usb and that works fine. I was thinking the hard drive was fried but I can access it from linux and the data seems to be ok (can open pictures and stuff).

So is there any way I can repair the hard disk from ubuntu? I'd rather not wipe everything but I can back it up first if I have to. I don't have any of the CDs that came with the laptop. I think it's running win7, could be vista though.

I'm hoping there's a linux utility that can help me. Any ideas appreciated.

JakHicks

I'd go ahead and back it up before attempting anything else, just to be on the safe side. It could be that it is actually dying but Linux seems to be able to access it. Once you've backed up I'd install TestDisk in Ubuntu (you can actually install it while running live from the cd) Have a look at the link and it explains what it does and it'll hopefully fix it without you having to wipe it. But backup anyway in case it makes things worse! You can never be too sure.. Hope that helps!

EGriff

Thanks for the help man. I tried TestDisk and it returned no errors at all so the drive itself seems to be fine. I managed to get the Win7 disk so I just did a clean install and everything boots ok now again.

EGriff

It died again after working for a few hours. Now when it starts up it says no bootable device.

Hard drive must be damaged.

yoyo

EGriff wrote: »

It died again after working for a few hours. Now when it starts up it says no bootable device.

Hard drive must be damaged.

Run a hard drive diagnostics utility to check, you can get them on UltimateBootCD and I find Seatools for DOS to be good (Works on all drives not limited to Seatools)

Nick