Primary hard disk drive 0 not found

[cmar84]

Hi there,

I've had 3 years of problem free use of my Dell Latitude 505 laptop. That is until the last few days when all hell has broken loose.

The first in a catalogue of errors was a blue screen message saying "unmountable_boot_volume" together with instructions to start in windows in safe mode. I tried this several times but each time was returned to the same blue screen.

I then searched online for a solution and was instructed by this and some other websites to boot from the windows XP disk and go to recovery mode and run a chkdsk. I tried this but could not get to recovery mode as when I hit r at the appropriate moment I was given a screen which said no hard drive was detected and hit F3 to exit.

I then ran diagnostic and was given a message "ERROR 1000-0141 No drive detected". This was around the time a clicking noise started to come from somewhere inside the laptop. I presume this is the hard drive struggling to rise itself from dead.

Now when I turn on the computer, when I go to boot I just get the message "primary hard disk drive 0 not found".

I've practically given up by this stage but any suggestions would be much appreciated.

If indeed the laptop is shot, can anyone tell me how I mite recover the data from the hard drive.

Thanks in advance.

C

[DellOutreach]

Unfortunately, it sounds like the hard drive itself may have failed. If that is the case, then recovering your data could be expensive, or even impossible. Connecting the drive to another computer for testing would probably be needed to verify that. If you have another drive to test with, swapping them is another good way to verify whether or not the problem is with the drive. If the drive is bad, you would need to replace it.

The service manual for the D505 has the instructions for removing the hard drive, whether for testing or to replace it.

The drive itself is, if I am remembering correctly, a standard 2.5" EIDE drive with an adapter to connect it to the system. If you purchase a replacement drive from Dell it should come with the plastics and that adapter. If you purchase a replacement elsewhere you would have to transfer the plastics and adapter to the new drive (not difficult with a small screw driver and a few minutes of work). The biggest thing to to ensure you get a drive that fits in the hard drive bay (2.5" drives come in heights between 9mm and 13mm, and I can't find the info on how tall the bay is on this system).

LarryR
Dell Outreach Liaison

[cmar84]

I've ordered a replacement hard drive, it's a 2.5" IDE. I've given up on recovering data from the hard as by all accounts it's well and truly knackered.

Thanks for the advice.

C

[sittas87]

Welcome C
Once you get a new HD the latitude will run like a metley superstar

Regards

[matrix_3]

Go to Bios and check the HD from there, if u can see it u can solve the problem

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -

[Tisso]

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask or not.

Our son's laptop (Latitude D600) wouldn't boot up one day. Earlier that day it was working fine. They got a screen that said there was no HDD installed. They brought it over to me, I took the HDD out and put it in a little 'dock' type of contraption that I bought, connected that via USB to my computer, it wouldn't read it. I figured his HDD was shot. There are lots of pictures of our grandbabies on there and other things he would love to recover (tax info etc.) I ordered a new HDD. I got it yesterday and this morning I set out to install it. I put his Window's cd in and windows starts 'working' . . . . ready to install or repair. I click on install and it says there is no HDD present. Well, I know better, I just installed it. When I go in to Setup, that blue screen that has 7 pages of info, there is no HDD listed there, for starters. I don't know which way to go now.

Any suggestions?

[iiiears]

Your disk maybe broken but here are some things to try.
1. Place the drive into an external USB enclosure and plug the cable into a second PC.
2. Download a linux iso image Ubuntu will do fine. and burn it to CD/DVD as a
boot-able IMAGE file not a data file.
3. Install testdisk and at the command line type
4. Install Testdisk and type: man testdisk at the command line
5. Install ddrescues and at the command line type: man ddrescue at the command line.
6. Visit Gibson Research Corporation site and purchase SpinRite.
7. Visit OnTrack Data Recovery site, Pricey but worth every penny for irreplaceable photos etc.
If you enjoy the power of an open source operating system keep using it
Cheers,

[stone_0022000]

All the options giving up here are good for you.but always try to shutdown your system properly in case of other time.improper shutdown damage system's HDD.BE WARN