Laptop won't read internal HDD

Hi I have a samsung NP-QX411-WO1US model. My laptop doesn't recognize the internal SATA HDD and it wont boot up. The bios also doesn't recognize SATA HDD. Can anyone tell me is this the bios issue or the hdd is damaged. Thank You!!

 

Did you change the BIOS settings? In particular, either the Boot Priority or the UEFI settings? Or did you recently update the BIOS (which can cause settings to reset to the wrong values)?

Check this post and this post which are other cases of boot problems from earlier today, and their solutions.

 

If the BIOS can't recognise the HDD then I would be 99% sure that the HDD has died. While the mean time to failure of HDDs is, typically, 100,000 hours, some fail sooner (I've known it happen at a month old).

The best test for the HDD is to remove it, install in a USB enclosure and plug it into another, working, computer. If there is no sign of life then you can be 100% sure that the HDD is dead.

John

 

I absolutely agree with that, John. But first do check those BIOS settings I mentioned: We've had several cases where the disk didn't show up neither in BIOS (under Boot Priority) nor in Windows Setup, because the disk was GPT and UEFI had been disabled.

This scenario happens easily, both because BIOS updates sometimes reset UEFI to disabled, and because users disable it (not knowing the implications) in order to boot USB or DVD.

 

The QX411 is a couple of years old from an era when Windows 8 and UEFI were still rumours.

I somewhat doubt this is the problem here although I completely agree that UEFI and GPT have caused plenty of grief for people who have purchased notebooks with Windows 8 pre-installed.

John

 

Oh my, I didn't even think about that. You're absolutely right, John: If it wasn't delivered with Win8, it is not very likely that the disk is GPT. In that case a dead disk is indeed the likely cause, or a loose cable.

As far as I could tell, this model was released summer/fall 2011, so its BIOS likely DOES support UEFI (as does the NP700Z3A/Z4A/Z5A from around the same time); but it would only have been used if the user specifically installed Linux or Windows in UEFI mode.

I'll refrain from further arguing

 

yes thats the same thing happened to me, i'll try to fix it let you know. Thanks

 

yea the laptop came with windows 7 and when windows 8 came out i installed windows 8 it was running fine for few months.

 

Hey I tried to go in recovery mode by pressing F4 but nothing happens but i can still go in bios mode. Is there any way i can do to fox my laptop.

 

Check if the HDD is dead: Take out the HDD and test in an external enclosure using another computer.

John