Help...Possible Dead HD

I have a Toshiba X205 SLI-3 w/ downgraded to windows XP Pro Sp2 anyhow one day I was on my bed had to computer running MS FLight sim with no problems...it froze (to load up textures) in the meantime I went to put it down on my desk, while moving from my bed to my desk I tripped over a bag and the computer was on its way down to hitting the floor i "saved" it by kinda pushin it towards my desk and it fell onto my desk fell fully open..and it fell hard XP froze I couldn't do anything wit it so I hard booted by holding down the power key. Upon to reboot after the BIOS and Toshiba logo I get a black screen saying "windows could not start due to a missing or corrupt file, missing file is C:\system32\ntoskrnl.exe" with that said I figured I had damage HD so far I have tried:

Windows Recovery Tool (Xp)
Trying to Install a copy of XP on the 2nd Hard Drive, this did not work because windows notified me that the first HD was either damage or corrupt, and I needed to reformat that drive before I could install windows on the 2nd. @ the point I just want to know whats wrong with the computer. Am i correct with diagnosing it with a bad HD. Does anybody know of a way I can perhaps save some of my work? I ran CHKDSK and it reported "The Volume is in good conditon, so the check was not ran" any help is greatly apreciated!

 

Most likely the heads of the harddrive banged pretty hard into the platters of the drive.
You can buy a USB to SATA adaptor from NEwegg, so that you can remove your harddrive and copy the data directly to your desktop.
This way you can try and regain all of your data before formatting the drives.

Your harddrives are probably not completely shot. You are jst going to have to pray that a low level format will fix the drive.

K-TRON

 

you can also run a drive fitness test to see if your hard drive really is dead.

 

okay...well really frustrated that I just created a $2,000 paperweight I went ahead and tried to re-install XP...while re-formating the drive the setup got stuck @ 40% and has been hanging there ever since...(about 20 minutes) now. Im pretty convience this means that this one drive is dead. My question to you guys is that is there a way possible I can used the second drive? because it wasn't reading anything I've never used it so I don't think it could possibly be damaged...any tips...once again thanks guys. I apreciate the quick responses

 

When installing your OS, you should have had the option to install on your second HD before installation began. You can use the second drive by selecting it at that stage.

 

The X205 is a new laptop, which means your system is under warranty.
You can always send the harddrives back to Toshiba for replacement.

I doubt only one of the drives got damaged. I would assume that both drives are identical, and both would be damaged from the fall.
But I guess the angle the laptop fell has to do with it.

You can physically remove one of the drives and then install xp on each. With trial and error you can find which of the two harddrives is causing the problem.
Then you can take the broken harddrive out and send it to Toshiba for replacement.

Good Luck

K-TRON

 

hey so @ this point is it better for me to just call toshiba and play stupid because im not computer techinical enough nor have the time to start removing hard drives and doing trial and error. Let me know your opnion thanks...

 

If you still have warranty, then it would be best to simply report that your HD has died. Opening up your laptop might void warranty, so that could potentially be a very bad idea.