Hard drive failure?

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

There is a problem with my dads computer. He has a dell dimension 4600. Yesterday he loaded up pictures from his camera then left the computer alone. I came to the computer and its on a black screen that says
Primary hard disk drive 0 failure
strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility
F1 just shows the same message again.
F2 will go into setup. Under drive configureation it shows the hard drive there. under boot up menu it says hard drive(not installed)

Any clues on how to get this fixed?

2

Dell is going to replace the hard drive. Now I just have to recover any data I can.

3

does it make any noises on initial boot?

4

buy a copy of spinrite if you want that data back.

Before you do that get a bootable ultimate boot cd, and boot the hard drive scan tools.

I used to scan broken hard drives for a living 8 hours a day for almost six months, and used that tool exclusively.

5

[quote=“intense98rt”"]

There is a problem with my dads computer. He has a dell dimension 4600

[/quote]

I think you found the problem all on your own there…

6

When you get the new hard drive and get an OS installed on it hook your old drive up as a slave and see if you can at least read some of it.

If not, hope you had a backup.

If not http://www.drivesavers.com/
We send out credit union clients who are too stupid to make proper backups there when all else fails. I’ve seen them pull data from drives that were 100% dead. Mega $$$ money though.

7

[quote=“sureshot007,post:5,topic:36017"”]

I think you found the problem all on your own there…

[/quote]

haha… I was waiting for someone to bash the dell. Its also a maxtor hd.
My dad is going to talk to his IT guy at his work tomorrow to see if he can do anything. He said he mostly wants to get his pictures from it, if he can get more great. I told him to start backing up his stuff.

8

pm sent. send it to me if you want your data back.

9

The guy at my dad’s work tried to get the data off. He said he couldn’t because the motor was completely dead.
How hard is it to swap motors?

10

um…no.

It’s gone. Just let it go.

11

cant swap motors as far as i know, as soon as you open the drive you break the seal and its no longer useable, plus the fact of getting one open is really hard without the proper tools.

12

^^ getting them open is pretty easy (getting the platters out is a bitch, but the magnets are fun)

+1 for sending it to locutus.

Or you could always try putting it in the freezer for and hour or so

13

it’s doable… but either risky as to if it’ll ever work again or costly to have it done.

if it’s just personal / family shit, write it off and tell your dad to backup his shit. if it’s crucial, he just learned an expensive lesson (and tell your dad to backup his shit).

14

I guess it’s not that big of a deal.
Dell wants the bad hard drive in exchange for the new one they sent. My dad is kind of worried about the info that is on the hard drive. Such as turbotax stuff. I told him not to worry about it.