Laptop bootup issue

[Chiefcrowe]

I am trying to fix a laptop.. but it isn’t booting and the hard drive diagnostic says it needs to be replaced.
Also, boot discs aren’t reading the drive. It’s pretty much dead and almost impossible to recover data right? (besides sending it out to a recovery service…)

 

[JackMDS]

Take it out, put it in a $10 2.5" USB enclosure, and connected it as a data drive to a Desktop.

Might be that it is only a boot problem, and as Data HD you will be able to copy the Data from.

 

[lxskllr]

If it's mechanical damage, freezing the drive can get things loosened up enough to retrieve data.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

i thought about that but have you ever seen a case where it is not reading when booted from a CD but then reads ok when slaved?

Take it out, put it in a $10 2.5" USB enclosure, and connected it as a data drive to a Desktop.

Might be that it is only a boot problem, and as Data HD you will be able to copy the Data from.

 

[lxskllr]

i thought about that but have you ever seen a case where it is not reading when booted from a CD but then reads ok when slaved?

Not really. I'd try the freezer.

 

[dawks]

Buy and run SpinRite. Best $90 you might ever spend (depending on how important your data is).

It will do a sector level scan of the drive, attempt to recover as much data as possible and check bad sectors out of the drive.