Can't Log In

[Lewie]

Hi all.
My mate gave me his laptop after throwing it to the floor during a temper fit.
My daughter has a similar model.
I swapped the hdd to see if it was ok.
It was.
I put my daughters hdd back in and now it doesn't show any user icons at the start up window??
I've tried safe mode, repair, restore blah blah.
Nothing.
It boots up it shuts down but no way of logging on.
Any clues??

 

[usasma]

Try these free, bootable diagnostics (the most common problem with a dropped/thrown laptop is a bad hard drive):

H/W Diagnostics:
Please start by running these bootable hardware diagnostics:
Memory Diagnostics (read the details at the link)
HD Diagnostic (read the details at the link)

 

[Lewie]

Hi usasma.
It isn't the dropped hdd i'm concerned about any more.
It is the fact that testing the dropped hdd on my daughters laptop has messed it up.
I can't log into the laptop any more.

 

[DirtRider]

Ok I am going to just take a dip here as this sound very strange. Are you sure you have put your daughters drive back in and have not mixed them up and put back your mates HD back into your daughters laptop? What happened when you had your mates drive in your daughter laptop did it boot?

 

[Lewie]

Don't blame you for that one DR.
It amazed me as well.
Absolutely positive, it was strange, the dropped hdd booted but when I plugged my daughters back in it acted as though the other drive was still there.
It booted showing the dropped hdd user names.
Now, I don't know if it's possible but it was as though some of the data from the tested hdd had been copied to the RAM and that info was still there when I plugged my daughters HDD back in and it got confused.
How else would it show the wrong welcome screen?
At the mo all I want to do is save my daughters data, I will deal with new install and the dropped hdd later.
I believe I can buy a adapter to plug the laptop hdd into my pc and set it as a slave and then I will be able to recover the data??

 

[DirtRider]

Hmmm ....... Ok lets try this go into your Setup menus (BIOS) when booting up and get it to rediscover the HD. Do this by removing the HD from the list and letting it rediscover the HD. Also make sure the laptop is completely turned off and not in any type of sleep mode before doing this

 

[Lewie]

I'm in the setup but don't see where to remove the hdd.
I have the info tab.
Main tab
Security
Boot
and Exit
I can change boot priority order but can't remove it from the list.

 

[DirtRider]

Hmmm ..... this also depends on the version you are running. Do you see the HD in any of the options that would be where you would also see an option to search for HD

 

[usasma]

I use this adapter at work: CoolDrivesSATA and IDE Hard Drive & Optical Drive USB Adapter Kit COMBO