Disk read error on notebook.... need ot get data off

[digitalduck]

Ok my friends notebook all of a sudden is giving me a disk read error at statup. He doesn't have recover discs and i tried to do a scan within bios but nothing.

I thought for a moment I coudl tether and post his HD as a slave on mine but not without accessing his os first... so is he out of options? Id be fine with just telling him his HD is dead...but...

 

[NoStateofMind]

Buy an external HDD case at best buy/newegg, take the HDD out of the laptop with the boot problem and insert it into the enclosier. Connect the enclosier to your pc via USB, go to my computer and select that drive, you should be able to access the information you need (usually under "user" or whatever name is at log on). If unable to be read the only way to get the data back is to have some sort of software or send it off to a clean room that costs big time money. You can get the recovery discs from the manufacturer by providing them the serial number and model number of the unit, although they may charge up to $30.

Hope this helps

 

[digitalduck]

Nice, I like the external cover option..I will definitely look into that...

Thanks!

 

[TheKub]

If the laptop is newer it likely has a SATA connector which you should be able to just simply connect to your PC without any enclosure. That said tell your friend he needs to start backing up.

 

[digitalduck]

what if the HD Is actually done... then hooking it up wont matter correct? But I see why it would work, because I have the OS to run it off of..so here's hoping.

Thanks again

 

[Xordae]

An easier option would be to just download a recent Linux Live CD, like Ubuntu, burn it on CD and boot from CD.

Then you could try access the HD from Linux, it is from my experience more forgiving with hardware failure, as in.. it might not give an error during startup because it won't actually access the disk until you try to do it yourself.

 

[dfnkt]

Originally posted by: Xordae
An easier option would be to just download a recent Linux Live CD, like Ubuntu, burn it on CD and boot from CD.

Then you could try access the HD from Linux, it is from my experience more forgiving with hardware failure, as in.. it might not give an error during startup because it won't actually access the disk until you try to do it yourself.

I would give this a try. I've recovered a dozen hard drives or more in the last year using SystemRescueCD. Just stick the drive into another rig, boot up to the sysrescue livecd, use the CLI (don't bother with X) to create 2 directories and then mount your main and bad drive to these dirs

Change directory to the dir that you mounted the questionable drive to and you should be able to copy all the files off to the good dir/drive.

I've been able to do this even with a few drives windows wouldn't even recognize after putting them in the freezer for a few hours.