Dell Notebook HD Crash

[sunburninaz]

I've been using a Dell Inspiron 8100 for a couple of years. Early last week - and while in use - the whole system locked up. When I reboot I get one of two error messages. The first is:

Primary Hard Disk Drive Not Found
Fixed Optical Drive Not FOund
No Bootable Devices

When I get this message, no hard drive is found in BIOS.

The other message I get is:

A Disk Read Error Occurred
CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot

When I get this message, BIOS picks up the hard drive.

Here's a couple of questions...

Everything critical was backed up and I have retrieved it on another disk. There are other non-critical files, however, that were not b/u'd that I would like to save. Short of paying more than I want to for a data-retrieval company to salvage the non-critical files, is there any program or method to attempt to get the thing to boot long enough for me to either transfer the files via the network or burn them to disk?

Secondly, I can replace the HD fairly easily and inexpensively but I'm concerned as to whether it was simply a HD crash or if something else could have caused the failure. What are the chances that if I replace the HD, the new one will crash also?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Doug

 

[jpeyton]

you sure it didn't just get knocked loose? open up the hard drive port/bay and reseat it.

 

[sunburninaz]

If only it would've been that easy. I tried reseating the drive and still get the Disk Read Error. Any other ideas? Thanks,

Doug

 

[bacillus]

Primary Hard Disk Drive Not Found
Fixed Optical Drive Not FOund
No Bootable Devices

you are supposed to try reseating both hdd & optical drive to sort out that error.

 

[fr]

Just curious...what is the brand and size of the drive?

 

[Abhi]

sunburninaz, i went through almost the exact same thing a month ago on my Inspiron 8500

My HDD gave these same errors...

What is most logical for you to try is to get a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE convertor, and connect this HDD to a desktop.

In my case, the BIOS on the desktop refused to recognize the disk, but XP recognized it. Then i simply used a software called Magic Recovery Pro to get my data off it...

PM me if you need help/suggestions.

 

[Abhi]

The IDE convertor -> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000C0SCD/qid=1093247128/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl23/103-8900075-1839048?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846

Also, get a friend to lend you his laptops HDD and put it in your laptop, if his HDD does not give errors, it means that the problem ahould go away after you replace your hard drive.

Edit: is your HDD a Hitachi by any chance?

 

[sunburninaz]

Thanks for the responses.

The HDD in question is an IBM Travelstar.

I'll try the convertor ASAP. The only snag might be that the only desktop we have in the house is running ME. Is this going to have trouble recognizing the drive once connected?

Thanks again,

Doug

 

[Abhi]

If the BIOS doesnt have a problem (mine did), ME should not have a problem...