Vaio SZ HDD problem after dropping it!

hey guys..
i have a sony vaio SZ n a couple of days ago, i dropped it from my table. not a very big fall, but a fall anyway. immediately after turning it back on, i noticed the computer was slow.. it started to hang quite often, especially when i used google chrome (one of the only programs running on my C partition). movies which i had on my C partition also didnt open.. then i found it wouldnt resume after hibernating (i use win XP SP2).. unfortunately today, i get a Stop error on startup: Unmountable Boot Volume. same problem in safe mode too.

after a bit of research, i found that i could use XP Recovery console n run chkdsk, or open up my laptop n check the connections. im waiting to use a friends XP CD coz i dont have one myself, and im also waiting on a friend with a bit more experience to open up the laptop, coz im not much of a hardware expert. but is there anything else i could try? i also reset my BIOS as i read that could help, but it didnt. could the HDD be physically damaged? thankfully i made a backup on my external drive before this happened. any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks guys

 

I woudl say don't bother with checkdisk, have your friend remove the drive and see what he can remove.

There is a good chance as you access it, it's corrupting data. Even if it isn't you might want to get it off there as obviously the drive has been compromised. Get off as much data as you can ASAP, then try and save what is left. Each minute you wait, the more data you may be losing.

I have watched drives wiping off the magnetic surface of the disk as it accessed, it wasn't pretty.

 

oh i see. yeah, i was wondering if i could really do anything if the drive was physically damaged. but wat u say about it getting more corrupt as i keep accessing it makes sense, coz the situation got steadily worse. i have pretty much all my important data backed up, coz i did a backup immediate after i dropped it, so im good there. i guess i should just replace the hard drive then.

 

btw, im planning to buy a new HDD tomorrow. and probably buy windows 7 finally, to go with it. just to make sure, its probably only the hard drive thats damaged, right? replacing the HDD should do the job?

also, i was thinking of getting the windows 7 x64. my processor is x64, so it should be ok? is it worth it? i dont use applications that require 64 bit OS, but would the overall performance be faster? sorry for going off topic on my own thread

 

You should really go for 64bit.. Make sure to download the drivers prior to your installing the new HDD so you don't run into trouble. If you have some extra cash, go for an SSD (especially if the 160GB was sufficient to you so far), just go for 60GB or 120GB SSD and enjoy the performance increase with better battery life!

 

Follow the guide in my signature and you will be fine.
Do not use the Sony software on the site unless it's the Vista32. Yes, even for 64bit. The Sony Software stinks.

As for 64 vs 32bt.. 64!
The 6 and 7 series SZ's run better with 64 bit, and especially well with 4gigs of ram.


Your SZ has the LED screen (the thin one), that being the case, it should have survived the drop with minimal damage. If it visibly looks okay, it probably is. The older screened used a fluorescent tube to light the screen, those can break, some also used glass for the panel, the thin SZ's are plastic and use LED's. No glass to break. They are designed to flex, not crack. The only other moving parts are the DVD and the fan, which is not likely damaged, and you would have to flex the circuit boards quite a lot or hit them very hard to break them. The screen can flex nearly 30 degrees without issue, they were designed to flex, the Z even more-so. Switching to an SSD removes one more part that can break easily.

How tough are these?
Mine fell hard enough onto a curb to dent the PCMCIA slot in. Also, if you look VERY close, the screen at the front edge is now off by about 1mm compared to the base when closed. While not a lot, it seems I somehow twisted the whole chassis very slightly, I'm just not sure when it happened or what part is bent or if I just assembled it tweaked last time I had it apart (I'm not sure if that's even possible). I fixed the PCMCIA port and everything looks and works fine.

 

thanks so much for the help. i followed ur very helpful guide n windows 7 x64 is working fine now. the only thing that doesnt work is my webcam n fingerprint reader. i installed the webcam drivers as instructed but its not detected in any webcam program i use. under device manager, it comes as USB video device n the driver is up to date. not sure wats up with that. and im checking out how to get the fingerprint reader working now

 

got the fingerprint reader working. its just the webcam now. any idea wat could be wrong?

 

It may have been damaged in the fall, do you know if it was working before switching the OS? Try the other drivers in the pack.

Also, the original Sony program will not work, try Webcam Companion, this is the one bit of Windows7 software from Sony Support that we do use.


I'm glad you got it working (and with Win7 64bit no less).
Hopefully your SZ will serve you for a few more years.

 

yeah, thats probably it. the cam shows up in device manager as USB video device, n says the driver is up to date etc. but its not detected by any software that uses the webcam. i tried pretty much all drivers here, so i guess ur right, it got damaged when i dropped it..

and thanks for ur helpful guide, i dont think i wouldve got everything back working so fast without it cheers!