Hard drive failing

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Hey all

Im fixing a laptop, with a message that says no operating system found, which now seems to be the master boot record is missing.

So i have tried the usual recovery tools, the first was a start up cd using the utilities in there, but im not getting any luck, i have done the 'repair' about 5 times now, and only once did it say it has scanned and fixed etc, but still nothing? I even went through the process of of using bootrec.exe /fixmbr /bcd/scanOs etc but these have not done me any favours what so ever, also they finished extremtly quickly,, in seconds rather than at least a few mins etc, which is what id normally expect them to take.

So im thinking the HD is on its way out, i can access this via external usb docking and see most files, but when i do, its very slow, but there arent the usual noises etc. The one notable thing as well, is the state of the laptop, i dare say its been knocked about a bit, and overall i think this may of caused this error?

Am i missing something here, any thoughts??

Ed

 

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fixmbr and bcd repair are only fixing boot meta data on the drive, they should return fairly quickly in most cases.
bcd repair only takes a long time if there are multiple os's to detect.

I expect you missed something, try some google foo.

Did you do :-
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

etc

You should check the SMART status of the drive using something like HD Tune.
How to See if Your Hard Drive is Dying

A conventional disk with a magnetic spindle will die if it get subjected to shock, the heads will crash into the platters damaging the platters and possibly the heads.

If it was mine I'd replace the drive with a new one, SSD's make a lot more sense in a laptop all round. Less power draw, no moving parts, no shock damage.

 

Hey

yeah i did all that as well, but still nothing. Used crystal disk to check the drive, as its out of the laptop now and i got a caution on the reallocated sectors count. Im also using the HD tune as i type, so the results will be in in a while.

I do use google, but sometimes coming on here for clarification helps, im not being totally lazy.

Will let you know what it turns up

Cheers

Ed

 

Reallocated sectors can occur for many reasons.

In some cases there are manufacturing defects and the sectors are marked bad at the factory. So really its best to look for CHANGEs in bad sector count over time, but if its just come into the shop this is not really practical.

 

sounds like the hard drive is dying i had this and could only use a linux boot cd to get the data off before the drive died completly

 

Personally speaking I would probably try and image it and getting the data off the image rather than the drive itself.

 

What do you use for that Si

Acronis true image??

Or something else

Cheers

Ed

 

There's a few products out there, Open Source one is clonezilla, but there's Acronis or Norton Ghost (but it's been rebranded now)

 

Ed,

I have been a huge fan of Acronis in the past (I own via upgrades 4 different versions of it).
I have used Ghost, PING and Clonezilla in the past but I like the simplicity of Acronis and carry a USB key with it on in my bag all the time. It's saved me from time to time with server OS migrations as well (virtual to physical on an old SCCM box).

Simon

 

Almost all of the hard drives produced in the past 10 years have a built in logging mechanism. Try to read the output from their S.M.A.R.T. logging and see what is the problem. If the disk is completely dead, put it into the fridge (-15C) for few hours and then try again. Sometimes this trick is enough to get the important data. ;)

 

Placing a disk in a freezer only helps to un-fuse a stuck head. Typically done when the disk begins making a bunch of click-clack noises.