Solved No Bootable Disc Found ???

[BuckSkin]

Completely different laptop than the one I have been discussing in another thread.
HP with Windows 7 Home Premium.

The thing has sat on a table, unmolested, and untouched, network-connected and all lit up for weeks and weeks.

Several times a day, I will send photo files into it from another machine; anywhere from two or three to as many as fifty at a time, with long spells between.

Yesterday, I happened to look at the screen, and it was all grey with "No bootable disc found" (maybe not in those exact words).

I fiddled with it and got it to finally tell me to insert a bootable disc and press any key; I did that several times and it always told me no disc could be found.

I finally managed to get into the boot device selection menu and chose internal DVD-whatever and hit Enter and still no go, rinse and repeat a few times.

What is the diagnosis ?


Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.

 

[samuria]

The hard drive has lost the boot sector it should boot DVD or USB check if you can the disk will boot on another PC and not faulty

 

[torchwood]

hi

if you dont want to unplug the drive, try this first

Advanced Boot Options

boot -- hit F8, or F5

if you get the screen shown in this tutorial, select last known good

Roy

 

[BuckSkin]

My diagnosis = HDD is dead
I could never get anything to see it when in the laptop.
Windows would not show up in either repair disc, not the native Windows version, nor the Macrium Win-PE version.
I finally removed the HDD and re-plugged the connection = still no go.
I inserted the HDD into the dock and could not see it.
I looked in Disk Management and a box appeared telling me I needed to initialize the disk.
I clicked Okay and an error said something about cyclic redundancy, and the initialization failed.
I reinserted it and tried again with the same results.
This is the first dead disk I have tried and not been able to get at the files.

 

[samuria]

It sounds as if its lost its partition info and you need to use free partition recovery software. All so go to makers site they will have software to test the drive health CRC error normally is disk structure error not a failing drive

 

[BuckSkin]

It sounds as if its lost its partition info and you need to use free partition recovery software. All so go to makers site they will have software to test the drive health CRC error normally is disk structure error not a failing drive

Thanks.

I have EaseUS Partition Master; will that do what I need ?

Could it have lost its partition info when it was already booted up and in Windows and then just sitting there, all lit up and doing nothing, this happens ?

The HP disk test in BIOS fails every time, in fact won't even start, it just stays at 0%.

The HDD is WD; I have the WD tools; will they work via the HDD being in a dock on a working machine ?

 

[SIW2]

I finally managed to get into the boot device selection menu and chose internal DVD-whatever and hit Enter and still no go

After detaching the hard disk can you then boot via dvdrom drive?

 

[Megahertz07]

The HP disk test in BIOS fails every time, in fact won't even start, it just stays at 0%.

The HDD is WD; I have the WD tools; will they work via the HDD being in a dock on a working machine ?

It seems like the HDD has failed. It can be a logical issue that can be fixed or a Hardware issue that can't be fixed. As the HP disk test in BIOS fails every time, I would say it has a hardware issue that can't be fixed.
Yes, you can remove the HDD and install on a caddy or directly on a desktop.
The easiest way is to make a USB tools drive, boot from it on the laptop and run the diagnostic tool.
Bootable PE Rescue Disk Works on any windows computer.

 

[BuckSkin]

After detaching the hard disk can you then boot via dvdrom drive?

Yes; with no HDD in the machine, I have successfully booted Linux Mint Cinnamon on a DVD and can open various included Linux programs, plus access the internet.

With the HDD in a dock, USB connected to a working machine:

1. Windows Disk Management will not display it, but knows it is there by opening the disk initiation dialogue, which always fails with the CPC error.

2. EaseUS Partition Master, which usually can do things that Disk Management cannot, refuses to acknowledge the presence of the problem HDD

3. WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics (it is a WD HDD) knows it is there, but cannot identify it.
I ran the Quick Test, which completed in a flash, and said Test Successful 0 bytes 0 sectors
I ran the Full Test, which informed me that it could take several hours; it too completed in a flash,
Successful 0 bytes 0 sectors

 

[BuckSkin]

The easiest way is to make a USB tools drive, boot from it on the laptop and run the diagnostic tool.
Bootable PE Rescue Disk Works on any windows computer.

How does this differ from the Macrium Reflect-created Win-PE repair disc that says the path to the O/S does not exist ?

The way it just out of the blue up and quit while sitting idle, and not while restarting, tends to lead me to believe that it is indeed a hardware failure.

 

[SIW2]

Sounds like a mechanical problem with the disk. You could try booting something linux ( I would use gparted or parted magic) on the working machine you have the dock attached to.

That is a long shot but worth a try.

If no joy with that, then the only other thing is a specialist data recovery firm. They aren't cheap. Only you will know if whatever on the disk is worth it.

 

[BuckSkin]

Sounds like a mechanical problem with the disk. You could try booting something linux ( I would use gparted or parted magic) on the working machine you have the dock attached to.

That is a long shot but worth a try.

If no joy with that, then the only other thing is a specialist data recovery firm. They aren't cheap. Only you will know if whatever on the disk is worth it.

I have the O/S partition backed up with Macrium and the photos on the Data partition backed up a gazillion different places; it will just take some doing copying all the thousands and thousands of photos back into it.

This old laptop was in a dusty drawer for many years and I dug it out and resurrected it a few years ago as a portable photo album; it works wonderfully for that = set it on the table at grannies, start a slideshow, and let it do the rest.

New SSD is now on the way.

 

[BuckSkin]

I want to thank everyone for their ideas, input, and help during this crisis.

After trying many avenues, I gave up on the HDD as a dead duck; I kinda think it's motor had worn out and just quit spinning.

I have now installed a new SSD and a Macrium image and am in the process of reinstating my custom partitions and then reinstalling the photos.

Since it is a dead soldier anyway, I may do investigative surgery on the HDD and see what I can do with it.

A friend of mine had a HDD fall from a counter onto a concrete floor, landing first on it's corner.

He tore into the thing and decided a "needle arm" gizmo was bent out of shape.

He bent it back like he thought it should be and was still using it the last time I asked.