PC says no bootable HD found

[jdull]

I recently had my Dell Latitude D600 fail while it was docked overnight. When I went to get on it said that the Primary Hard disk drive 0 not found. Another PC had disconnected from the LAN but was otherwise fine.
When I check the setup it is stating that there is no primary hard drive. I have tried the hard drive in another laptop and it fails to work on that one. Replacing the hd in mine works fine.

I have created Win XP boot disk and tried but it will not recognize the drive to allow me to run a chkdsk. It says that "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem"

What options do I have to recover the data on the drive. I am not really concerned with saving the hard drive to reuse I just need to get my digital pictures off to another drive so I don't lose the 3 years of my kids pictures.

[digitalocksmith]

It might be possible that your hard drive has suffered some sort of mechanical failure...
Do you mean that the drive is no longer recognizable by the BIOS?
Were there any strange or unusual noises coming from the drive when you last attempted a boot sequence?
These are certain signs of HDD failure in which case you shall need the help of professional data recovery services.
I do know of a very unorthadox method to which i have used to certain degrees of success in the field, but i am loath to explain this method for fear of the criticism it tends to attract!

Impact IT Solutions (Sydney) come highly recommended, however im sure that there are many reputable services in your local area!
They provide free quotes and work on a...No data, No charge policy.
http://www.impactit.com.au/datarecovery.htm

Cheers

[jdull]

It might be possible that your hard drive has suffered some sort of mechanical failure... Do you mean that the drive is no longer recognizable by the BIOS? Were there any strange or unusual noises coming from the drive when you last attempted a boot sequence? These are certain signs of HDD failure in which case you shall need the help of professional data recovery services. I do know of a very unorthadox method to which i have used to certain degrees of success in the field, but i am loath to explain this method for fear of the criticism it tends to attract! Impact IT Solutions (Sydney) come highly recommended, however im sure that there are many reputable services in your local area! They provide free quotes and work on a...No data, No charge policy. http://www.impactit.com.au/datarecovery.htm Cheers

It makes a sound like a cunk a cunk with a slight tin like metallic sound, almost like a scratching sound (probably makes no sense)

yes the bios is not recognizing it, I have also tried to refresh the bios and tried a boot disk where I went back to the last good config and it still wont boot

What was the unorthodox method?, i have read some posts involving wrapping the hd and putting it in the freezer for 3 hours with some success recovering

[digitalocksmith]

Yes, given the description of your symptoms, i would say that its definately mechanical failure within the hard drive itself!

(What was the unorthodox method?, i have read some posts involving wrapping the hd and putting it in the freezer for 3 hours with some success recovering[/quote] )

OK then, this was the method i was referring to, however be warned that if you attempt this procedure and it fails, it is unlikely that even the pro's will ever be able to rescue that data from your drive.
I would still recommend a professional recovery service but this decision is all yours.

These are the steps to be followed:

Put your HDD in a waterproof plastic bag in the freezer overnight. Retrieve in the morning, hook it straight up and if it responds, go like a 'shot dog' to haul your data outa there before she warms up again.

This can be effective on drives that are giving 'data read errors' or even drives that are not spinning up!

My only logical explanation for this phenomenum is that metal contracts when its cold.....so the drive platters shrink, increasing the clearances for the read/write heads. Usually if your drive is not making a clicking sound, your successful in retrieving your data.

It's a long shot and should only be attempted at your own risk, although it can be a saviour to one of our worst nightmares.

Good Luck!

[bobthecar]

dud try it, if ur hd making that sound ur introuble really, the arm in the had dire is raming to the side, i may even try giving it a bang, work for me 1 time. but really by new hd and forget about it