Dell lattitude hard drive not recognized at startup

hello all, i am new here and not very computer literate in the programming, bios, internal workings of computers. I have a friends Dell latitude with xp home edition that does not recognize the hard drive on start up. it is a bone stock laptop, no mods. when i (he) goes to boot it up, it makes this god awful clicking noise up by the number 3 key, and says "Primary hard disk drive ) not found
NO bootable devices-- strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

i did the F2 and it says for primary hard drive - none. but yet, on page 2 it says that the hard drive is enabled. please help me help a friend.


by the way, i took this problem on because the way he described the problem, it sounded as if he just did a hard drive restore, which is not the problem seeing as it wont even boot up.

is it mechanical, or deeper than that?

thank you for your help

 

The God awful clicking noise could very well mean a mechanical failure on the hard drive. That would be my first guess, and unfortunately, not really correctable. Do you know if the hard drive is physically located near the 3 key? If so then it's pretty much guaranteed the hard drive is about to go out on a permanent lunch break. If you have critical data on the hard drive you need to retrieve, you'll have to remove the hard drive, attach it to a computer with a working OS to attempt data retrieval. If there is no critical data, I'd just dump it and start with a new hard drive.

 

^^thats what i pretty much assumed. is there any way to determine for definite that that is the problem? I really dont want to tear my friends laptop apart, if it was my own thats a different story. Oh, and how exactly do you do a data retrieval on my pc?

thanks

 

More information is required to solve the problem.

 

An easy way to determine for sure is to get your hands on a known working hard drive and replace it. If the new hard drive works.... then it's obvious the old one is broken I know on Dell laptops, replacing the hard drive is really easy. It usually requires removing a couple screws and popping out the old hard drive, check out Dell's website for more details, they have good manuals and pictures in them to help you if you've never done it before.

Another way is to put the hard drive in another laptop, or if you have a 2.5" -> 3.5" hard drive adapter, you can connect the laptop drive into a desktop. In the off chance it works, that will mean something else is wrong, other than the hard drive.

Those are the 2 easiest and least intrusive ways to make sure it's he hard drive that has the problem. But judging by your description, I'm about 99% certain it's the hard drive. To do data retrieval, it really depends on how "broken" the hard drive is. If the hard drive can still spin and read bits and pieces of data, you can hook it up to another machine as a secondary hard drive, and there are programs that can try to piece together bits and pieces of the data. If the hard drive is mechanically busted to a point where it doesn't even spin, or the heads have literally "crashed" into the disc surface... you're pretty much SOL. Not to be the bearer of bad news, but if the BIOS doesn't even detect the hard drive in your case, chances are, the operating system on another machine won't either. So a new hard drive is most likely needed.

Hope this helps, good luck!

 

much thanks, thats what i figured the problem was the first time I turned it on, but I do not know dell laptops personally, so i just wanted to make sure. One more question, does anybody know where to find a good deal on a replacement drive? I also need to find out if he has a ?reboot? disc, one that has the os and all that other stuff you need on it. hows every bodies opinion on tiger direct, or are there other, better sites out there.

 

If the system is still in warranty, it is a simple matter to have a replacement hard drive shipped out. If the warranty is expired you would, unfortunately, have to purchase the replacement. If you can PM me the service tag I'll be more than happy to check the warranty status for you, and if covered, set up the replacement. If you can list the model of Latitude I can tell you exactly what steps are needed to swap the drive, and what size to get (some of the notebooks use 9mm drives, so the larger 12.5mm or 13mm height drives don't fit).

The fastest way to see if it is the hard drive is to just remove it then power on the computer. If the click is gone then you know its the drive. If it still clicks with the drive out, check the fans as some Dell models have a fan on the bottom of the chassis under the back left corner (again, knowing the exact model helps narrow down the probably parts to check).

If you have any questions for me about the system I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate