Computer (hard drive) ?

[2quills]

I think the hard drive on my laptop crashed. It's an H.P....my question is, can I pull the hard drive out of another H.P. laptop and throw it in mine and use it untill I can replace mine with a new one? Is there anything special that I would need to do in order for it to work?

 

[stdreb27]

Sure, for the most part the HD itself is generic. The issues is going to be your software. The other issue is going to be drivers. The have small programs that run the hardware on your computer. So you're going to have to go to HP's website, and download them. Usually they can reference your software based on a serial number. I haven't specifically used HP, only with dell. Or if you have the original disks, those typically have the drivers on a disk.

 

[scsinet]

Yeah, for the effort involved just purchase a new drive, install it, follow the system restore instructions that came with your machine. You need not order a new hard drive from HP. Any hard drive with the same interface should work so you can get one just about anywhere... Best Buy, etc.
Just take the old one wtih you and have someone help you find one of the same interface. The interface can either be SATA or ATA, both types are still sold even though SATA is newer, though if the drive is ATA, your options may be limited.
You'll want the same size or larger, whcih should be just about any of them. You also want to try to get a 7200RPM drive. My personal preference for regular laptop hard drives is Western Digital Caviar Black.
My question is, how have you arrived at the conclusion that your hard drive has crashed?

 

[2quills]

Thanks, I think I'm just going to go pick up a new hard drive. The one in the other laptop has a different type of connection on it and wont fit. New one is only about $50. I just need to find someone now who can clone my old one without charging me an arm and a leg. I only have a small portion of my files and photos backed up and I don't want to lose them.

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by SCSInet http:///forum/thread/384789/computer-hard-drive#post_3372262
Yeah, for the effort involved just purchase a new drive, install it, follow the system restore instructions that came with your machine. You need not order a new hard drive from HP. Any hard drive with the same interface should work so you can get one just about anywhere... Best Buy, etc.
Just take the old one wtih you and have someone help you find one of the same interface. The interface can either be SATA or ATA, both types are still sold even though SATA is newer, though if the drive is ATA, your options may be limited.
You'll want the same size or larger, whcih should be just about any of them. You also want to try to get a 7200RPM drive. My personal preference for regular laptop hard drives is Western Digital Caviar Black.
My question is, how have you arrived at the conclusion that your hard drive has crashed?
Well I hadn't kept up with my anti virus software since it expired several months ago. The system had been running a little bit slower lately but I'd been putting off doing anything about it. All of a sudden as of yesterday I can't do anything. My windows home screen will come up but not all of my icons will load and the computers froze. So I hit f-10 and ran a system check on the HD and it said replace the HD????

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by stdreb27 http:///forum/thread/384789/computer-hard-drive#post_3372258
Sure, for the most part the HD itself is generic. The issues is going to be your software. The other issue is going to be drivers. The have small programs that run the hardware on your computer. So you're going to have to go to HP's website, and download them. Usually they can reference your software based on a serial number. I haven't specifically used HP, only with dell. Or if you have the original disks, those typically have the drivers on a disk.
So quick question since I have you guys here. I don't have a lot of extra cash to spend this week. If I go pick up the new hard drive and bring it home...then in order to get the origional software that came on the computer (windows...etc.) how do I go about that since the new harddrive will basically be blank? Can I download those drivers...etc. onto a disk with a different computer and then load them onto my other one with the new drive?

 

[stdreb27]

Most of the time, your computer comes with re-installation disk. So you technically shouldn't have to buy anything. As long as your have the disk. If not, you have to find and download the exact version of windows you had beforehand. You'll have to retype in the product key which will be on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop.

 

[scsinet]

As far as cloning the old drive is concerned, what I'd do is pick up an external USB enclosure that is desigend for your type of drive (SATA or ATA). You can get them for about $20.
Simply install your old hard drive into that enclosure. Then you can plug it into the laptop once you have installed the new hard drive and your system software and copy the data off to your new laptop HDD. Provided the drive just contains damaged data and it is not physically damaged, you can then use it as a backup drive, etc.

 

[2quills]

10/4 on the cloning. The old drive says it's a Serial ATA....so I picked up a new SATA since I assume that is the same thing? I couldn't find any regular ATA up at best buy. I just have to take the old one out of it's enclosure. My computer didn't come with a re-installation disk...the paper work says that I should be able to go to the HP website to get what I need so I'm going to try to do that from this computer. If all goes well, hopefully I'll be back up and running on my laptop in the next few hours (fingers crossed).

 

[monsinour]

SCSInet has everything correct so far. Having the internal BIOS tell you to replace the HD is iffy really. Most HD manufacturers wont take them unless you run their software diags on the drive. If the drive is just giving you grief, boot from a disk and try to run some HD checking software. There are plenty out there that you can burn to CD and boot from. Most of them will do what they can to fix problems, others will just break it worse. If your not experiecned with it, then just get a new HD, get the drive caddy for the old one, locate your install disks, and spend the rest of the day setting the new drive up.
IF, and only if the old drive will work in the drive caddy, AND the operating system on the old drive is XP, I would recomend using the F.A.S.T. wizard to move things over. You can create a file with that wizard and burn it to CD/DVD and then use that disk to transfer your files and settings from one HD to another. you are not without assistance here.

 

[scsinet]

Yes, SATA and Serial-ATA are the same thing.
Most PC manufacturers have stopped sending physical restore media. Instead, they put the restore software on a hidden partition of the hard drive... a pantload of good that does if you need to replace the hard drive though...
HP/Compaq, usually if you call techsupport, they will send you the restore media, often for a smallish fee. That will not only restore your laptop, but will re-create the hidden area of the hard drive and place the restore data on there as well.
On the other hand, you may consider upgrading to a new OS if you are running something older... in which case you can forget the restore software and just purchase newer software.

 

[2quills]

Well I am able to access the system restore and recovery option which is located in part of the hard drive as SCSInet said when I hit f-11 on startup. So I did try to do a system restore to no avail. I don't want to put it into the recovery option yet as I'm still unsure if that will whipe out my files or not.
Monsi: what happens is when I fire up the computer it will load to vista home screen and it looks as though it's going to work but then half of my desk top icons go blank and I can do nothing. Can't even accest my start menu, I tried cntrl,alt,delete and still nothing.
I do have the new H.D and am not opposed to running a new O.S. but I know nothing of the other operating systems. I know in the tech world that microsoft is crap but for my everyday type of use I don't mind it too much. Is windows 7 better or worse?

 

[monsinour]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/384789/computer-hard-drive#post_3372302
Well I am able to access the system restore and recovery option which is located in part of the hard drive as SCSInet said when I hit f-11 on startup. So I did try to do a system restore to no avail. I don't want to put it into the recovery option yet as I'm still unsure if that will whipe out my files or not.
Monsi: what happens is when I fire up the computer it will load to vista home screen and it looks as though it's going to work but then half of my desk top icons go blank and I can do nothing. Can't even accest my start menu, I tried cntrl,alt,delete and still nothing.
I do have the new H.D and am not opposed to running a new O.S. but I know nothing of the other operating systems. I know in the tech world that microsoft is crap but for my everyday type of use I don't mind it too much. Is windows 7 better or worse?
Well, have you tried starting up in safe mode just for grins and giggles? Press F8 during the startup and you should be presented with options to start in safe mode. If the machine boots in safemode, then there is a driver problem somewhere and we can figure it out.
According to the reviews, windoze 7 is better than vista, but why pay for an OS anyway? Depending on what you use the PC for, just about any flavor of Linux will do fine. Have you seen Ubuntu with Open Office? If you play a lot of games, WoW D2 Starcraft CnC etcetera, then maybe Linux wouldnt be fine. For your average web browsing email checking music playing document creating person, Linux is perfect and free.
Are you sure that the system restore option doesnt wipe the drive? System recovery and system restore are too close to not mean the same things really. If you have a new HD and the HD caddy, AND you can get the system to boot in safemode then you might be able to move the hidden partition over to the new drive and run the restore from that keeping the old drive intact.

 

[2quills]

I did try it in safe mode yesterday and just tried it again right now... it's basically the same thing...I get a home screen with the desktop icons (half of them are blank) and can't click on any of them. The cursor moves around the screen but is the only thing that does anything at all.
According to HP's website, my paperwork and the information that I get when I try it that the restore option is the same as any other time you try to restore the computer to an earlier date. It's not supposed to effect any of my files which is what it's telling me. If I go to the next option (system recovery) then to my understanding it's basically starting over from scratch with the origional OS software. And that one I'm pretty sure is going to whipe out my personal stuff.
The Linux sounds good to me. I wouldn't be apposed to running that on the new drive and still get my files off of the old one. Currious to know if this is just a driver issue though as you mentioned.

 

[monsinour]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/384789/computer-hard-drive#post_3372308
I did try it in safe mode yesterday and just tried it again right now... it's basically the same thing...I get a home screen with the desktop icons (half of them are blank) and can't click on any of them. The cursor moves around the screen but is the only thing that does anything at all.
Well, that is in a way, good news. It more than likely is a driver issue. The driver could reside on a bad sector of the HD thus causing the problems you are having. In safemode, when the cursor moves, do the lights change when you press the caps lock key? They should as the keyboard uses are lower IRQ than the mouse. There should be more than one option on safemode. Try to get it to come up with the "safemode command prompt only" option. This will be as basic as possible for the pc loading the minimalist of drivers. If this works, then we can run some HD utils from windoze to attempt to make the system work. Let me know if you get it into safemode command prompt mode. I am assuming you are posting on a different PC than the one we are working on yes?

 

[dragonzim]

What you are describing does not sounds like a bad hard drive, rather a corruption in your Windows install

 

[2quills]

Yep I'm on the wife's desktop now. I have the perpetrator right next to me. Caps lock indicator light does come on and off.
Ok, I am now currently in safe mode command prompt. I have a black screen with the administrator: cmd.exe screen up.
I see:
C:Windowssystem32>

 

[bionicarm]

Try typing in CHKDSK /F. This will run a disk check on your hard drive and fix any errors that it can find. Reboot, hit F8, and try boting up with "Last Known Good Configuration". If it still doesn't work, you need to either obtain the Restore CD from HP for your computer, or install a new OS on this new drive you purchased. Once you get the new OS installed, you can connect your old drive via USB from one of these hard drive caddies, and it should come up as another drive. You can then copy off all files ou want to recover from the old drive.
How old is this HP? Windows Vista is today's version of Windows ME (junk OS). Windows 7 is much better, but is a memory and CPU hog. If you don't have at least 4 gigs of memory, I wouldn't install it. The various Linux versions out there are nice, and the GUI interface mimics Windows to some degree. However, it's still considered a Development OS (unless you purchase the canned version like Redhat from the store). You may not like some of the nuances of that OS if you've never played with Unix before.

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by bionicarm http:///forum/thread/384789/computer-hard-drive#post_3372347
Try typing in CHKDSK /F. This will run a disk check on your hard drive and fix any errors that it can find. Reboot, hit F8, and try boting up with "Last Known Good Configuration". If it still doesn't work, you need to either obtain the Restore CD from HP for your computer, or install a new OS on this new drive you purchased. Once you get the new OS installed, you can connect your old drive via USB from one of these hard drive caddies, and it should come up as another drive. You can then copy off all files ou want to recover from the old drive.
How old is this HP? Windows Vista is today's version of Windows ME (junk OS). Windows 7 is much better, but is a memory and CPU hog. If you don't have at least 4 gigs of memory, I wouldn't install it. The various Linux versions out there are nice, and the GUI interface mimics Windows to some degree. However, it's still considered a Development OS (unless you purchase the canned version like Redhat from the store). You may not like some of the nuances of that OS if you've never played with Unix before.
Thanks, I'll give it another go and try that tommorrow and see what happens. I'm a little fried tonight, I've been messing with this thing all day.
I did happen to get the latest version of linux ubunto netbook loaded up onto the new drive and I'm currently posting this from the laptop now. I also figured out that I could still use the hardrive out of one of my other notebooks that has a busted screen one I figured out that I needed to take the HD out of the caddy and swap it. So I'm going to end up putting that one in my wifes other laptop and get that one re-running for her again. So now I have at least 2 more laptops working that weren't working as of this morning. If I can get my other drive working again that would be great, then I will have 3 use able notebooks laying around.
My current personal notebook I've had for just over 2 years now. I did make sure that I upgraded to 4 gig memory when I got it because I didn't want to be out date after the first year. So I'll give this Ubuntu a go for a little bit and see how I like it. If not I'll probably go pick up a copy of windows 7.
Thanks for all of the tips guys. I appreciate it. If I get stuck again, I know where to go.

The fish site lol.

 

[2quills]

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to like Ubuntu. I am unable to upload flash player, can't see vids. Yahoo messenger isn't happening either. Any body got a spare copy of W7?