Hard Drive Won't Boot..

So.. I just flew to San Francisco to stay with my brother for a week. I used my m15x on the flight down here no problem. Played cards on it, nothing serious.. I used it up until about a half hour before touchdown on the plane and it was running great..

While today I go to boot it up for the first time since the plane trip last night.. and the hard drive is making a weird noise. Its not the typical clicking that usually happens when your hard drive is dead and the head is crashing, but instead its an electronic noise like the head is rubbing on a platter.

I put it in the freezer and hopefully it'll boot.. but seriously this hard drive is a month old! And its a Seagate.. which is an awesome brand.. How could this happen. -_-

I'm pretty disappointed. I really hope this thing isn't dead as I want to be able to use my laptop on this trip..

Any other suggestions? Freezer is the best one I could come up with from my years of trying to get dead hard drives to work again...

 

try booting from the optical drive and running a HDD testing tool.

 

Unfortunately it won't do anything when it boots with the drive in.. It gets about halfway through the loading bar with the alienware logo on it (the Alienware BIOS boot screen).

I tried going into setup and it froze up even doing that.. Argh.

 

uh huh. got access to a desktop computer? you could take out the m15x's HDD and put it into a desktop case as a secondary drive and run the HDD test tool on there.

 

Very good point. I'm on my brothers gaming desktop right now..

Unfortunately I'd need to get a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter.. Hmmm...

 

oh, sorry. i don't know my way round desktops too well and figured the SATA cable would be standardized.

 

Hmm.. guess I didn't look closely enough at the hard drive to see if it was SATA.. on the m15x its got an adapter on it that has pins that look like IDE.. but I'm guessing its hiding a SATA connection underneath it...

 

You could buy an external hard drive closure and connect it to your brother's desktop to try and recover your files and see if that works.

 

nah, the m15x is very very probably SATA.

 

If you have your Windows Vista Installation Disk (or Windows XP Installation Disk), you can access the System Recovery Options (dubbed "Recovery Console" in XP) to repair any boot files that might have become corrupted.

I'm not too sure if AW has provided a Windows Vista Installation Disk in your order, but you can download one here if you don't have one:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

For more information about the System Recovery Options in Vista, refer to these articles provided by MS:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/326b756b-1601-435e-99d0-1585439470351033.mspx
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2b3724d1-f4ad-5b26-16dc-3e9e66f4be5e1033.mspx

In Windows Vista's System Recovery Options, I suggest using the Startup Repair tool. If that doesn't work, you can then try using the Command Prompt (also listed as a recovery tool) to run a Check Disk (using both /f and /r parameters).

For information about the Recovery Console in XP, refer to this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

 

Yes, it's SATA for sure. Picture here

See it here

 

But he said he cant pass the BIOS POST screen, is that correct ???

 

Yea.. Oceanus I don't have any boot problems.. its the hard drive itself..

I tried a preliminary pull out of the freezer and boot and nothing changed.. Gonna leave it in there for a few hours while I go explore SF...

 

From my understanding, you can still choose to load from a different device using F12 during the BIOS POST screen, can you not? I'm sure you can still boot from a CD.

 

I tried it while the hard drive is in and it locks up. I can do it without the hard drive in though...

I think I'm just going to buy a new hard drive.. try to find somewhere around here to get one.

 

that's what i was thinking too.

 

In all honesty, I would speak to Roswell first before doing anything. You're still under warranty and who knows, they might be able to send you another hard drive if that's the sole cause of the issue.

 

data would be gone, though. plus AW said you're allowed to upgrade the HDD, so you're allowed to take it out.

 

Well I didn't mean it that way. I mean that since he's under warranty, he might be able to get a replacement from Alienware. Data is gone either way if he plans on replacing it with a new HDD anyway, that is, unless he plans on restoring the data somehow.

 

Alienware uses Seagate Harddrives?

 

Yes. This is a Seagate 7200.2 120GB 7200RPM SATA2 HDD.

So its still not working. The freezing thing didn't help. I'm going to call Alienware. Hopefully they can send me a new one...

Can I call Roswell even though I didn't spend enough money for them to contact me and tell me their my support team? Or do I have to call the basic support??

 

Hey, do you have another spare laptop HD lying around? Try putting that in your m15x and see if the laptop still runs normally. IF so, then it's definitely a messed up HD. Call Roswell.

 

I just got off the phone with Roswell and they are sending me a new hard drive. Very helpful.. didn't ask me any stupid questions like I would expect from Dell's CS. They are sending me the hard drive and I'm sending them the old one back. Can't ask for better service.

 

Told you you'd get a replacement. =P

..and Roswell is basically there to help any customer. I don't see how they could reject a person because they didn't spend enough.

 

Ok, here is the deal. Get yourself a new 500gb over newegg for just $150
Call up alienware and ask for the replacement of your existing 120gb, along with a smart bay casing. when they send you the HDD put it in smart bay and now you got yourself 620gb of space

 

yeah, i'd put in a 500gb HDD too. and while you're at it, seeing how you have to reinstall the OS anyway, might as well switch over to 64bit.

 

I thought about getting a 500 gig.. but right now I'm short on funds.

I'll eventually go to a 500 gig.. or maybe a 750 like hard drive companies are promising by the end of the year..