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    Aspire HDD broken how to reinstall everything?

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by coobowie, Feb 5, 2009.

  1. coobowie

    coobowie Newbie

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    Hi All
    I have an Acer Aspire 5720 series with a seagate momentus (5400.3 120GB).

    I am pretty sure the HDD is stuffed. The notebook tries to start and gives me different error messages each time basically to contact the hardware manufacturer. The HDD also seems to make a click or clunk noice every so often as if it is having trouble reading.

    Anyway main question. If I replace the HDD how do I get this notebook working again... no recovery CD's or anything??
     
    coobowie, Feb 5, 2009
    #1
  2. Zeph_Ng

    Zeph_Ng Notebook Enthusiast

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    Judging from the way you are describing the noises the HDD makes, its dying (hardware wise, imminent mechanical failure).

    No software out there can prevent mechanical failure from ever occuring (delaying it at best), so your best option at present is to back up whatever you have and may need, and then have a new drive installed in your machine.
     
    Zeph_Ng, Feb 5, 2009
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  3. coobowie

    coobowie Newbie

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    Hi Zeph Ng

    Yeah thanks for that, that is sort of what I suspect. It has failed to the point that the machine will not start properly so I was wondering basically what to do if I replace the HDD... which is easy enough to do but I am unable to access any of the info on the current HDD.

    There seems to be a bunch of drivers on the Acer website, but how do I know what to install or not?
     
    coobowie, Feb 5, 2009
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  4. Zeph_Ng

    Zeph_Ng Notebook Enthusiast

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    You'd want to install the drivers for your chipset, GPU, Audio Device, wireless LAN, card reader etc.

    Basically, switching of HDDs shouldn't require a driver installation if everything goes right, since the motherboard (perhaps with a more updated BIOS) should automatically recognize the HDD.
     
    Zeph_Ng, Feb 5, 2009
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  5. coobowie

    coobowie Newbie

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    OK thanks, I'll give it a go
     
    coobowie, Feb 5, 2009
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  6. coobowie

    coobowie Newbie

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    Understood but what about Windows Vista? I have no disks I guess it was on an isolated part of the original HDD?
     
    coobowie, Feb 5, 2009
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  7. Zeph_Ng

    Zeph_Ng Notebook Enthusiast

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    If you install Windows Vista as per normal, everything should be setup and, I would be guessing, that your monitor should be running at a resolution of 640x480 (adjustable).

    This is the step whereby you install the drivers first for your chipset, and then the GPU drivers to get it running.

    All the drivers for the Acer Travelmate 5720 can be downloaded from Acer from http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5720.html

    Depending on your version of Windows Vista, remember to not interswitch between the 32 and 64 bit drivers.
     
    Zeph_Ng, Feb 7, 2009
    #7