Presario - Hard drive crash

[groucho1062]

The hard drive on my Presario R3000 crashed last night, and I'm trying to get a handle on how screwed I am.
Compaq's sending me a new drive, but I'm going to try to recover what I can, first.
The error when booting is PXE-E61, and it says to check the cable.
I can boot from CD ROM, and - just to see if the hard drive was visible - tried to install Linux (Lindows). During the installation attempt, I could see the hard drive light on quite a bit, and I got my hopes up. But the installation reported that there was no usable hard drive found. Obviously, the PC itself is seeing the drive, otherwise the light wouldn't go on (right?).
I've ordered & downloaded GRC's Spinrite, but so far have had no success making a bootable CD (I'd welcome instruction on that, but I'm waiting for a response from GRC tech support).
Anyone else have any thoughts on something I can try?
TIA,
Mark

[viperman224]

Well first off, I'm not really sure if you are trying to run linux on the cd or trying to install it. If your trying to install it, it's probably not a good idea especially if you data on the hard drive that you want. Never try to reinstall an OS on a hard drive you think is failed and has important data on it. It just defeats the purpose. Other tools you may try are nortons ghost 9.0 or 2003 (depending on your version of windows. For XP use 9.0 and for windows 2000 and lower use 2003.) You can buy both at compusa or a similar store for i've seen anywhere from 20 to 70$. You can then boot from the Nortons cd and use the file restore software that's built in. Spinrite just beats up on the drive and tells you if there are any errors. Becareful with it because it can earse (sp?) your hard drive if you perform a certain test (I believe its the 1's and 0's test but don't qoute me lol) Have you tried removing the hard drive and putting it in another computer? I would also try changing your hard drive cable and then checking the bios (press either the f1, f2 or the delete key at start up). If your bios sees the hard drive, chances are it may be ok. Also, check the jumper settings on the back of the hard drive and make sure that it is set to the "master" setting if it is the only drive on the cable. Make sure your power cord from the power supply unit is pluged in firmly. If you have any other questions let me know. Good luck

[groucho1062]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't actually going to install Linux - I just wanted to see if I could, because of the harddrive. And - worst case, if I wound up with a reformatted hard drive, I'd be no worse off than I am now, which is with no access to anything on the drive.
The BIOS is reporting no hard drive, and (probably because it's a laptop) isn't letting me change any settings.
Spinrite was downloadable last night and has a money back guarantee, so it seemed worth a shot. I've tried booting from Norton SystemWorks and that booted, but found no hard drive, so it couldn't try to fix it. I was hoping at least it would tell me that it was a bad format.
I haven't yet tried the drive in another PC, though it occurred to me. I was wondering about compatibility - are all laptop drives the same (physical) size?
I'd welcome any other thoughts.
Thanks.

Well first off, I'm not really sure if you are trying to run linux on the cd or trying to install it. If your trying to install it, it's probably not a good idea especially if you data on the hard drive that you want. Never try to reinstall an OS on a hard drive you think is failed and has important data on it. It just defeats the purpose. Other tools you may try are nortons ghost 9.0 or 2003 (depending on your version of windows. For XP use 9.0 and for windows 2000 and lower use 2003.) You can buy both at compusa or a similar store for i've seen anywhere from 20 to 70$. You can then boot from the Nortons cd and use the file restore software that's built in. Spinrite just beats up on the drive and tells you if there are any errors. Becareful with it because it can earse (sp?) your hard drive if you perform a certain test (I believe its the 1's and 0's test but don't qoute me lol) Have you tried removing the hard drive and putting it in another computer? I would also try changing your hard drive cable and then checking the bios (press either the f1, f2 or the delete key at start up). If your bios sees the hard drive, chances are it may be ok. Also, check the jumper settings on the back of the hard drive and make sure that it is set to the "master" setting if it is the only drive on the cable. Make sure your power cord from the power supply unit is pluged in firmly. If you have any other questions let me know. Good luck

[viperman224]

Laptop hard drives are the same physical size. But this depends on the age of them to. I have an old pentium 1 toshiba which I scraped for parts but the hard drive was still good. I decided to make it an external hard drive so I could save school work etc. Unfortunatly, when I bought the external case, the hard drive was just a little to big to fit inside. So, I have to buy a new hard drive to fit in the case. But most newer laptop hard drives are the same physical size. Most likely, if your BIOS can't see your hard drive, the hard drive is probably done. But I still recomend trying it in another machine. Now, if you get your new hard drive in from compaq and it doesn't work in your laptop your probably looking at a motherboard issues. In which case, you need to call compaq. Good Luck.

[caperjack]

I've ordered & downloaded GRC's Spinrite, but so far have had no success making a bootable CD (I'd welcome instruction on that, but I'm waiting for a response from GRC tech support).
Anyone else have any thoughts on something I can try?
TIA,
Mark

Hi ,I use spinrite ,have been using it for about 7 yrs now .,I think I used Nero burning roms option to make a bootable cd ,and copied and burned spinrite.exe to it .
Also if you bios doesn't see the hard drive ,Spinrites not going to detect it either .