Alienware M17x R4 - My Hard Drive suddenly just stopped being detected.

Okay. Last night, I was updating my Starcraft II to the 1.5 patch thingy. I slept for a while and just woke up a few hours later to get everything up and running again when my hard drive just couldn't be detected by my laptop. Here's what appears:
For Atheros PCIE Ethernet Controller v2.0.5.9 (06/01/11)

Check cable connection!
PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.
No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Hi, sorry to hear

I've had this twice in the past. The AW support took me through the following tests before dispatching a replacement HD (the second time it was my boot drive so I got them to send an engineer coz I was feeling lazy)

1. Go into the BIOS, F2 when prompted on the alienhead screen from a full power down and startup.

2. Check if it 'sees' the HD in the device list.

3. If it is not there, which I'm guessing it wont be, power down, move the HD to the other bay and look again in the BIOS. Still not there? HD failure probably. This is the point they try a replacement HD

Note: If you have no experience with BIOS settings do not make any changes. Safest way to exit is to NOT 'exit and save', just exit. Think of the BIOS as your laptops central nervous system. The CPU might be the brain but the BIOS connects all the hardware together. If you see anything that intrigues you research it before making any changes

If you're lucky it could be just a poor connection and swapping the drive bay and putting it back could fix it - fingers crossed.

 

Hey man, thanks for the quick reply. So I checked it and it doesn't see the HD on the device list.
I'm going to try to open it and see if switching it to the other bay will help it to function again, just because this came out of nowhere and it's somewhat freaking me out.
Well, I'll update on my progress I guess. Now where's that screwdriver...

 

NP

It's probably the easiest laptop to open up and work on I've ever seen, two screws under the battery and slide it off. Make sure you slide it as just pulling it off can break the very small tags that hold it in place. Other than that you're there for the HD bays

Good luck!

 

Yeah. Well, I was actually wondering if using the CD it came with to boot it like some stuff that I read might help it work. Any thoughts? I mean, I'll try the switching thing first since I need to find where my discs are.

 

Not going to help. It will probably boot from the CD but there won't be a drive to install to.

If it is still not there after swapping it it's time for a service call to dell. Make sure you tell them you have tried the swap and it is not in the BIOS as this will speed up the call.

 

That's actually my biggest dilemma right now. I'm from the Philippines. 3 months ago, I asked my relative to buy me one from the US and just hand carry it here for me to just pay them then. I don't know what I can do right now...

 

If dell have a presence there then you can transfer the warranty. Go to your local dell site and search for warranty transfer. It's quick and simple. Dell also alow you to call for support in any country they cover for up to 6 months of being 'out of the country of origin' so either transfer it or call saying you are out of the country. Local support can sometimes be obstructive in these situations but if you have problems then twitter @dellcares are very good at getting you to the right people

Good luck and PM me if you need help with them!

Edit: Your relative in the states may have to do the transfer since they would be the owner as far as dell is concerned but as I said it's not difficult.

 

Worse comes to worse on the warranty, hopefully it was just a crappy 500GB spinner you lost, good reason to go ahead and get a SSD :thumbsup:

 

If the product is not sold in the Philippines you may need to send it back or provide an address in the US for the HD to be sent. Anyway... did you try reseating it?

 

I will try the warranty transfer here but I'm really not sure if it applies to the Philippines because Dell Alienware really isn't sold here. Well, I do hope I can talk to them so they can help me out.

Thank you and I most likely will.

 

I didn't change any specs of the Alienware M17x when we bought it, is that the 500GB that you're saying? If worse comes to worse that my hard drive failed, can I have my files recovered? I do have some important stuff in there. I really don't know the difference too with SSD and what I have. Thanks for the input.

 

Yeah it's not sold here. Alienware's are a big no no for most Filipinos because the price of the ones sold here are extremely taxed and overpriced. I do have the address of my relatives but it would be such a hassle to have it sent to them and then sent to me.

I actually haven't. I can't believe myself I've waited this long. I can't find a screwdriver to fit it and I'm pissed. I'll update when I've tried it. I do hope that's only the problem. I can't bear think to lose that hard drive. 3 months then a hard drive failure? I mean, that sucks.

 

Hard drives normally fail because they are mechanical. I'm sorry that it had to happen to you. Please let us know when you try that.

 

Yeah I've read about those. Thank you for that. I will.

 

try leaving your PC in the bios for like 15-20 mins... My crucial M4 has had the same issue in the the past and the fix was to just leave it for a bit and let it cycle while leaving sit like I said. Hope this fixes it for you!

 

Just buy a new one they cost like $40 anyway.

 

This. It's not worth the hassle, especially for a 500gb HDD.

 

I'll try this out. Do you mean leaving it in the stage where it says no boot fix and stuff or just the setup? I know it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

 

I was actually really thinking of just buying a bigger and faster hard drive anyway because 500gb seems to be so small for me. Anyway, I'm still gonna try and fix this and just add on another hard drive. I do hope it didn't fail because I kept lots of stuff in there.

 

If you can't get it to come back (which leaving it at the bios screen makes no sense to me, but, to each his own - plus the M4 is a SSD), you can try the freezing trick. Save a Failed Hard Drive in Your Freezer, Redux - It'll trash the drive afterward, but it's a last ditch effort unless you want to spend a bunch of money on data recovery services.

I'm guessing it still didn't detect in the other bay? Do you have a friend that can try it in their machine?

 

Well, I'm still trying it right now. I'm actually going to reassign the hard drive tomorrow when I borrow my friend's screwdriver. That freezing this is insane... I'll try that as a last resort.

 

I'd used a ubuntu boot USB to access trashed drives for the data after getting it running.

 

Well, I don't really know what that's all about. Do you have any advice on what I could do to try and detect the hard drive? Oh and what hard drive should I buy to substitute for it?

 

If removing it and putting it in the other bay does not show in the bios then a gentle tap on a desk has been known to work - but you can't make it any worse. And the fridge idea has merit . After that I'd give up on the data.

I haven't purchased a HD recently so apart from saying an SSD check around other threads as to brand/size/cost

 

Hit f2 on startup and leave it in the bios.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 running Resurrection Remix

 

That only works if the bootloader is corrupt doesn't help if the drive is actually dead and not showing in the BIOS.

 

Yeah, wasn't clear, If the does drive run but still will not boot ....

 

Yeah I guess I'll give this a go. I do hope it will work though. I can't really be so bold to buy another HD just after 3 months cause I mean, the last laptop I had, the hard drive lasted for 5 years...

 

1 follow-up question, changing my hard drive will solve my problem right? This not detecting thing?

 

Yes. Its unlikely the controller has failed.

 

Great thanks. I'm still gonna try the switching bays though, wouldn't kill me. And if it works, I'll probably get all my important files there, save it to this PC of ours that I'm using then when it dies again, I may have already bought a spare 750GB hard drive which would be much better.

 

Almost certainly but no guarantee that there is not a MB problem causing it (unlikely)

 

Oh man, I hope that wouldn't be the case. That would be on a whole other level. :|

 

try removin it and connecting it to another pc with an ide to usb converter and see if its detected there .. if it is then probably its a lose connection on ur machine .. if it doesnt work then problems with the drive..

 

Replacing should fix the issue if everything else failed.

 

Thank goodness! I was wondering if this hard drive will work fine on the Alienware M17x R4 because I really don't know. Would you recommend it? And I don't know the other one I should buy that they say is for booting...
MQ01ABDxxx (MQ01ABD025, MQ01ABD032, MQ01ABD050, MQ01ABD064, MQ01ABD075, MQ01ABD100) - Toshiba SPD - Product Detail

 

Personally, I'd use the working hard drive as storage and buy a new SSD.

 

Yeah, that's probably the best option! Turn a disaster into an opportunity .

 

I think I would agree but to be honest, I don't know about anything that you're saying. The hard drive seemed to have failed with mine and so I think I would not be able to use it anymore. The link I gave would be a possible buy for me to make it as my storage drive. I don't know what an SSD is. Really sorry for not knowing all this. I feel so embarrassed.

 

Basically the storage of your data can be put onto a HDD (Hard disk drive) which is a physical disk spinning, OR a SSD; a solid state drive so it has no moving parts. No moving parts ultimately means it should be faster overall. They are quite expensive compared to HDD, a samsung 830 256GB is £130 here. It will speed up your computer considerably, especially boot up time and shut down time.

 

Doh, just finished typing exactly the same when you beat me to it! Even down to the Samsung 830!!

 

Okay well, that somewhat explains a bit. Does the SSD have like a separate bay inside the laptop so I could put one of that and one of the HDD? Is that the case? I wouldn't mind a faster boot time and shut down time because it really would suck not having it faster. Oh and do I need like a techy person to do this for me or is it when I buy one, I can practically do it on my own without breaking or messing up anything?

 

Haha well at least I know that you guys are just practically trying to help me out in the best way possible. Thanks for that. I might buy a new HDD to work if my current HDD has totally failed and also an SSD so, yeah.

 

NP .

Go straight to the SSD to replace the failed HD. You're going to have to do a windows install anyway and physically they are the same (look different but the same mounting points) so you don't have to be concerned about differences, just get a faster laptop...

 

But the SSD's storage is somewhat smaller right? How do you think I should proceed with that so I can maximize the capacity of my R4 and have all my stuff there too...?

 

If I remember right (and I haven't looked back), you still have a working 750gb drive? If so then a 256gb boot drive SSD is more than enough for most ppl. You get to put your most frequently accessed stuff on the SSD and larger games on the second drive. I have around 45 games,all installed to my second drive (HD) and takes up 350gb.

 

Oh no, I was still planning to buy that 750gb drive. I posted the link for the 1TB toshiba one asking if it's better to get that one. I might as well get that and the 256gb boot drive right?

 

Sorry, easily confused . Yeah, that would be my choice - oh, it was! The ssd is the most important purchase and depending on your needs and budget you could go for any combination. My 250gb ssd/1Tb HD is just about enough for all my stuff, currently 91gb and 136 gb free respectively, but I do have a LOT of iso images as well

 

Yeah it's fine. Well, I might get the combo which fits my budget. Haha well, thanks a lot for all the help. I'm glad there are so many nice people in this forum.