M1530 dropped, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME, but works in other PC

Looking for some help here and don't know where to turn.

My M1530 fell, it worked for a while, but then it crashed. On Vista startup, it will bluescreen with either an UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME or that IRQL_IS_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL (something like that anyway) error.

Dell's diagnostic tests gave an error on the Hard Drive DST Short Test of 2000-0142. Dell says that means a broken hard drive and they are sending a replacement.

I tried putting the M1530's hard drive into a Latitude D620, and it booted! Slowly, but it booted. I was able to see the drive and use it for a good 12 hours before I shut it down.

So I am wondering if indeed the drive still works, but something else broke inside the M1530, like the connection from the hard drive to the motherboard. (One thing I haven't tried yet is to hook another hard drive into the M1530...)

Any thoughts on how I should proceed here? I need it back up ASAP. I'd hate to wait for the replacement drive just to find out it doesn't solve the problem. (I'm on the phone with Dell support as we speak...)

 

It sounds to me like the drive has been damaged. Most of the time, that's what happens when you drop a notebook. The read-write head had to of scratched some sectors. I would be very surprised if it did not.

But I would suppose it's possible that something on the board got damaged. I don't think you will really know until you try the new drive. I would try the new drive before I made a conclusion here. But I'm betting on disk damage.

 

You could try plug in another drive into your m1530 to check if it will work to confirm your situation.

 

Well, I tried the reverse. I plugged the D620's hard drive into the M1530 and it booted - to the Ctrl+Alt+Del WinXP log-on screen anyway, and then I shut it down.

How very strange that the bad hard drive will work in one machine but not the other.

I guess all I can do is wait until the replacement hard drive arrives and see how things go.

Thanks for your help.

 

Another update. I just put the bad hard drive back in the D620. This time I chose "Startup Repair" from the boot menu that popped up. This bluescreened with an UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error - the first bluescreen on the D620 that I experienced.

So I restarted it, but this time chose "Start Windows Normally". And guess what - it's starting Windows normally.

Time to back up everything while I can. This drive is knocking on death's door.

WARNING TO ALL: your offspring may be detrimental to your laptop!

 

Dam those kids!

Yah, that drive is toast. After your last post, It is safe to assume this.
And that is usually exactly what happens. Except you got lucky with it being in a state where you can grab the data. I hope you get that data before the drive completely chokes.