Help, laptop won't boot up after hard drive removal

Help! I just got a MSI GX700 laptop. I was thinking of upgrading the stock hard drive, so I removed it and put it back in just to make sure it's easy to do so before buying another hard drive to install myself. However, since then, I no longer able to boot up windows.

I did try the recovery DVD, however that says it'll reformat my drive and return to factory settings, because I didn't want to loose all my data, i didn't proceed with that.

Help, how do I fix this problem!

Thanks in advance!

 

1. Was the HD pulled from an unpowered system?
2. Did you take care and not put any significant force on the HD's flat sides?

If "yes" is both answers, than there's hope.

You could replug the HD again and hope that the problem is in a lose connection.

 

1. yes I unplugged the power and removed the battery before doing this.
2. I don't think i put much force on any side of the drive...

I tried putting it back in a couple of times, but still don't work... : (

 

OK, if you have an external HD enclosure (they are incredibly useful, especially in such situations) plug your HD to another system via USB and look what's on it. Most probably you will see/rescue all the data even if your boot sector is lost.

If you don't have a different system, but have and HD enclosure, try booting of a Knoppix CD (Linux that runs off a CD) and browse the HD. You still need a computer to download Knoppix... but as you are reading this, I think you have this option.

Good luck..

 

No I don't have one, but I guess I could buy one to try. Meanwhile, I tried the recovery CD, but even that didn't work. It said something like "disk does not exist..." Does that mean there's something wrong with the hard drive?

 

I might exercise the warranty on this... can I tell the store that I removed the hard drive and put it back in? or will that void the warranty? Should I not mention that and pretend that it just won't boot for no particular reason?

 

considering that warranty may want to use any excuse to not cover you, it's better to tell them the absolute minimum information until they ask for more

And... it's not cheating. HD should not fail because of swapping, period.

 

What exactly does it say when you try to boot up?

It will most likely void your warranty if they never gave you consent to do so. eg. HP will void your warranty if you touch any internal hardware part but thats ONLY if they notice or find out that you actually played around with it which is quite hard for them to find out.

 

(don't have comp with me at work... trying to remember) It has the typical boot up screen where you can press F8, F11, or Del
After that, it appear to try to boot up some "Realtek Network..." and it then says something like "Media test failed", and "...enter boot source and try again" and just keeps repeating that until i shut it down.

 

Run the BIOS's hard drive diagnostic test when you get home

Also keep an ear for ticking/clicking noises comming from the HD. This is like a warning of mechanical failure

Id tripple check the HD's connection again making sure everything is put back the way it was. It seems like the disk isnt being detected at all

 

Did you check that HD is in the BIOS boot sequence at all? (make it #1). Maybe your MB has reset to boot only from a network drive.

 

Ok I tried an external enclosure, turns out the drive works perfectly fine in the enclosure. So that means something wrong with the connections or the motherboard?

 

I checked in the BIOS setup. In the priority boot sequence menu, the only ones listed are:
1. DVD/CD
2. Network: Realtek boot agent
3. Disabled

does that look like my hard drive is not detected?

 

How do i run a diagnotic test? is this in BIOS setup?

 

you didn't push the drive in far enough

 

a diagnostic? how does that help if the system doesn't recognize the drive at all?

 

Remove the drive and install it again, making sure to fully seat the drive and install the screws (if required). Next, boot and enter the BIOS. Go through all of the pages and make sure the hard drive is recognized. If it is, move to the boot sequence screen and enable the drive and disable the network boot. Save and reboot.

 

OK, if you can put the HD tight to its connector, edit BIOS and manually replace DVD/CD with Hard Drive, that should be it.

 

It worked! Yeah turns out i just didn't shove it in hard enough! I had to push it in an extra mm. Thanks ALL!! very happy I didn't have to go through the hassel of sending it back for warranty repair. THANKS!