Laptop harddrive not detected

Joseph100 · 02 May 2013

Hi. I'm trying to help a friend on an issue they're having with their laptop's hard drive. Their laptop does not detect the hard drive upon start up. I have a hard drive usb cable that I bought a while back for another issue I was having and I hooked it up to this drive and nothing is being detected by my computer. I hear the drive running and clicking constantly which I'm guessing isn't a good thing. Is there any way to salvage whats on there?

I've asked on the dell forum and so far one person replied and told me to either take it to a specialist or stick it in the freezer, so I figured I'd ask around for other opinions. Thanks

Dwarf · 02 May 2013

Do you have a SMART monitoring program installed on your PC, such as CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World ? If not, download and install it and see what it reports for the drive. Please include the report with your next reply so that we can give you better advice.

My guess is that it is going to be either a mechanical or electronic problem (or even both). Since you can hear the drive spinning and clicks emanating from it, it probably means that it is mechanically OK, although the head might have got stuck somehow or other. Try just gently giving the drive a few taps with your hand whilst it is running to see if there is any difference. Sticking it in the freezer (be sure to wrap it up so that it doesn't get damp) for a few hours and then allowing it to warm up to room temperature can sometimes free a stuck head assembly, but you do so entirely at your own risk.

The best thing to do at the moment is to see what its SMART status is and report back with the results.

Joseph100 · 02 May 2013

Thanks but, my pc won't detect the hard drive. I hook it up via usb and it sounds like its running but, nothing appears on my computer. When I put the hd back into the laptop and start it up, the laptop won't even load up except to the screen that tells me no hard drive is detected. I tried using SMART on my computer with the hard drive hooked up but it only detects the computer's hard drive, not the laptops hard drive.

If I go the freezer route, how long should I leave it in there for?

Joseph100 · 02 May 2013

I've tried the freezer, moving it around, tapping on it and nothing has worked. Looks like they'll just have to take it to a specialist and hope for the best. Thanks anyways

miching99 · 03 May 2013

try to unplug and plug it back the hd, or check de bios wther any detection is there or not..

miching99 · 03 May 2013

it could be viruse inside,if possible, try to have full format instaed of first level format..once a while clear all de doubt

alphanumeric · 03 May 2013

With the drive connected via USB, does it show up in disk management?

Joseph100 · 03 May 2013

No it doesn't show up at all. Nothing shows up in bios when hooked up to the laptop. It seems like its a hardware issue with something inside it not functioning correctly. Just the way it sounds when I hook it up doesn't seem right.

alphanumeric · 03 May 2013

Depending on the BIOS, it may not show up in the hard drive section when connected via USB. It should show up in the list of boot devices though. If device manager doesn't see it at all there isn't much you can do. If the drive is a SATA drive you can easily connect to a desktop PC with a SATA cable instead of USB.

Dwarf · 04 May 2013

Unfortunately, it sounds as though it could be an internal logic board problem, in which case if there is any valuable data on the drive that you want to retrieve you will either have to replace the board with an identical one from a working unit or send it off to a recovery firm. Please note that there is no guarantee on successful data recovery with either method as it also depends on whether the fault (if there is one) has caused the data on the drive to become corrupted.