laptop broke

[s410man]

What does this mesage mean

isit something that can be fixrd at homd or a specialist job

thanks

 

[AndyStobbs]

Means the boot sector of your hard drive is corrupt. If you've not seen it before probably best to have it done by someone in the know.

 

[s410man]

Means the boot sector of your hard drive is corrupt. If you've not seen it before probably best to have it done by someone in the know.

Thanks for that

Expensive job?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Your laptop cannot see your hard drive, has it been knocked or dropped while switched on?
Chances are the hard drive has died.

 

[Paul.]

It means the computer cant see the hard disk, could be a faulty connection but more likely a dead or corrupted drive,

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Hard drive is £40ish and upwards depending on size, the trouble is you will have lost the contents of your laptop unless you have it recovered and that could be pricey.

 

[Pete.]

boot it up again and press F1 to get into setup right at the start. Look on the first screen to see if it lists any fixed disks/hard disks (pop up a photo if you aren't sure). If it does, the boot sector is corrupt or the disk is dying. If it does not, the disk is either dead or been jogged loose somehow.

 

[Sean]

You can download a free Linux based operating system it will load on your computer and you will have access to your hard drive It doesnt need the HD to be able to work as the whole operating system runs off either a USB drive or a CD and uses your Ram. Its slow and clunky as its not fully installed - you can read all your windows stuff and copy on to DVDs or USB flash
Linux isnt scary if you use a smart phone you are using linux in some form

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=recover hard drive using Linux

mind did the same after the dog knocked it off the table bought a cheap hard disk and installed Ubuntu got all the usefull stuff off the dead disk using the utilities that come with various forms of linux and a cheap usb /sata thingy. Havn't missed Microsoft one bit! You may be able to install Linux on the remaining good part of the drive
lastly - id try one of the boot recovery disks may just be an error in the boot sector , mine was toast as it rattled, never a good thing

 

[the snooper]

if its just the master boot record gone corrupt it can be restored using a windows boot cd to get to the command promt you should be able to instruction on the web , just search for master boot record restore
however your machine has tried to boot from other devices so it may be dead, if you have any way to remove the hard drive and connect it via usb to another pc you could do a full scan on it including searching for bad sectors

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Mate's daughter dropped her laptop and it was totally dead. Was covered by home insurance so they authorised inspection for validity of repairing and then when quote was about certain amount they "wrote it off" with a brand new machine being supplied by insurers. They also arranged for the contents of the old computer hard drive (uni work) to be transferred to the new computer.
Might be worth checking your own home contents cover to see if computers are covered.

Paul H

 

[s410man]

Thanks for all the replys

when it saud check cable I thought it might be something I could do

ill see how much it is to fix or replace before thinking about insurance

thanks

 

[rikrobson]

There will be a rap door underneath probably. Secured with screws and other clips. This will reveal the hard disc. Check the connectors. The bios should see the drive on the main page. If it does the drive will be corrupt to some degree. If it does not see it then just replace the drive. You will need a recovery disk or windows disk though. The recovery is normally in a partition of the drive so if you didn't.l make one when you got it you will need a windows disk

 

[excossack]

On windows Xp you can boot off the cd, and then enter restore mode. From here you can write a new boot sector / master boot record amongst other things. If you feel confident you could try it.
If you where local to me, I would offer to have a look...But Wales is a big place, you would need to be near to chester end.

 

[hillbillycat65]

If it is your hard drive, they are not expensive, mine went and I got a new 500gb for about 34 quid. Only problem nowadays you don't get the windows discs. They are on a partition but if your hard drive is goosed then you've lost that option to re-install as well. If you have the windows product code , look for a sticker on laptop, then download an os file from microsoft for your version, its free but a big download. Loads of info on net.

 

[the snooper]

If it is your hard drive, they are not expensive, mine went and I got a new 500gb for about 34 quid. Only problem nowadays you don't get the windows discs. They are on a partition but if your hard drive is goosed then you've lost that option to re-install as well. If you have the windows product code , look for a sticker on laptop, then download an os file from microsoft for your version, its free but a big download. Loads of info on net.

with windows 7 you get the option to write a set of recovery discs, it not obvious looking through your installed programs but the option is available

 

[Robotstar5]

with windows 7 you get the option to write a set of recovery discs, it not obvious looking through your installed programs but the option is available

That useful to know, I've just bought a laptop with Win7 on and it's got a recovery partition, I will have to look for the creating discs option, any pointers?.

 

[Rocketman]

You can mirror a drive as well - this does a exact copy of the drive that works and no need to load any programs back on either + all data is saved to.

Downside to it is that it will have all the same junk on as previous drive and is not what people would say is a clean install.

 

[wookie]

If you where local to me, I would offer to have a look...But Wales is a big place

Where about's are you ? I'm near Pwllheli.

 

[excossack]

Over towards chester!

 

[the snooper]

That useful to know, I've just bought a laptop with Win7 on and it's got a recovery partition, I will have to look for the creating discs option, any pointers?.

last time I did one was a year or so ago had to search the laptop for it, it was an acer aspire and cant remember how I got to it, I will do some digging