Laptop Error reading Disk

maracas

I have been givin a the following Laptop to have a look at:

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/product/Satellite-C660D-19X/1112993/toshibaShop/true/

The problem is its not booting i reckon the boot file is corrupt or missing.As usual the owner didnt create a recovery CD when he got it like is recommended.

It keeps throwing error reading disk press CTRL+ALT+DEL.

As i dont have the recovery disk i cant get past the boot menu.

What are my options here?

yoyo

maracas wrote: »

I have been givin a the following Laptop to have a look at:

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/product/Satellite-C660D-19X/1112993/toshibaShop/true/

The problem is its not booting i reckon the boot file is corrupt or missing.As usual the owner didnt create a recovery CD when he got it like is recommended.

It keeps throwing error reading disk press CTRL+ALT+DEL.

As i dont have the recovery disk i cant get past the boot menu.

What are my options here?

Failed hard disk more than likely, I would run a diagnostic scan of the drive to be certain (such as vivard on the Ultimate Boot CD). You can download windows 7 restore disk here and activate it using the serial under the laptop, but I think you'll be needing to order a new hard disk first

Nick

riclad

Try F8 ,hold press for ten seconds ,after reboot,safe mode, last known good configuration.

Razzuh

Following from riclad above, if his suggestion works and you get the windows boot menu, it means you have a chance of recovery since at least a portion of the disk can be read. If you're not getting that far and the error appears right after the BIOS load screen, the drive is likely toast.

johneire31

On the info given the drive is probably finished, is it making any noise? clicking or anything. I would try and extract important info of it before you go doing anything further diagnostics and recovery attempts as you may be able to get something of it using disaster software but the window of opportunity is very slim. You can try all other tips and tricks after to see if it is redeemable. Sometimes the controller circuit on the drive itself fails while the drive is still physical ok if you have a compatible controller you can swap out it might narrow you search a bit

j

maracas

Hi Guys,

So i triedd the windows recovery cd as per the first post and it goes as far as just after the windows logo and as if the login screen is about to come up but nothing comes up except the mouse pointer.

I can hear clicking and whizzing but not sure thats probably the cd drive.

Ive also tried F8 but the options for last known good congfig doesnt appear.

Anybody haave a link to a good disater recvovery piece of software.

maracas

I have downloaded the ultimate boot cd from thae link in the original post going to try it now.

johneire31

there is one screw holding in the cd drive on the bottom of the laptop if you take it out the cd drive will slide out. if you can hear the clicking with the cd out then you have a drive with the ' click of death' put simply the arm in the drive cannot read the drive and is jumping around frantically trying to find information. I don't know of any known fix for this if this is indeed the case. You simply need a new drive. Using data extraction software you may still be able to get information of the drive but its a tedious task and at best it is a long shot. But make sure you take the dvd out first to rule that drives noise out

j

riclad

IF YOU try f8 ,does safe mode menu appear,cd drive should not make noise if theres no cd disc in it.
see http://lifehacker.com/5237503/five-best-free-data-recovery-tools
if you need to recover data,it,s easy to put drive in a sata caddy 2.5inch ,cost 15 euro
and plug it into a windows pc or laptop.

i recommend this
http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm it
recover files emptied from Recycle Bin, or lost due to software crash, formatted or damaged hard drive,

johneire31

In this situation the cd can make noise and spin as the bios is looking for windows starting files, it will continue to make search of the full system including the cd drive in an attempt to find something. But it can't make any noise if its not there and then you can move on

j

maracas

Ive tried f8 an nothing happens at all.
Sorry i meant that its making them noises when i had the recovery cd running.I am in the middle of using the Vivard software that came with the ultimate boot cd from the first post.
It is checking for bad sectors,which i have 95 errors so far and its just started not good.

maracas

Also its worth pointing out that there is nothing important on the laptop he doesnt need to save any data.

yoyo

Yeah you need a new hard disk (shouldn't have any read errors). Great that nothing is needed off the disk, makes your life easier. Just replace the disk and reload Windows

Nick