PC doesn't recognize hard drive

[sirlink99]

I ave a Toshiba laptop, and when I tried turning it on this morning it wouldn't turn on. First there was just a black screen, so I removed all power sources, and held down the power button to reset everything, then I plugged the power back in, and I managed to get to the toshiba screen, but then it says that there is no medium, which is strange, because yesterday it worked, and I did not touch it since then. I have removed the hard drive, and tried again. nothing. I have also removed the ram and put it back, and still nothing. I am pretty sure my HDD should not have died. I have had this issue before, but I can't remember how I fixed it. When it did turn on I backed everything up so I won't lose much. How can I fix this problem?

Thanks

[caperjack]

I am pretty sure my HDD should not have died

there is now way you can be sure that it didn't die .they have been know to die with out warning, was it unplugged from the wall outlet over night ,the fact it happened before could have been a warning something was ailing in the hdd

remove and reseat the harddrive ,also remove the power and hold the button in again ,making sure to hold it in for at least 1 min

[sirlink99]

It was plugged in overnight. Holding it down for a minute did not solve the problem. I took out the HDD and reset it, and still nothing. I will probably have to buy a new HDD. Which brand is the most reliable, and is there any was to extend the life of the HDD?

thanks

[caperjack]

being plugged in over night leave open the possibility of a power serge,although not likely ,but always a possibility .
there are only a few hard drive manufacturers making them and branding them with known names !so im not sure the most reliable ,i like Seagate,Western Digital,[top 10 hdd http://www.reportlabs.com/testbed/version1/hdv1/hdtop10.php] to each there own i think .

one was to extend the live is to avoid writing and rewriting to it all the time ,so i would suggest getting an external drive for storage of music/movies and other thing you may download , downloading them directly to the external drive ,avoiding all the downloading and transferring from one drive to another,and making sure it runs cool, not getting hot is good to watch for .
.

[sirlink99]

I have bought a new drive (Western Digital), and I noticed that is takes ~0.5 amps less then my old one. does this matter?

Thanks

[caperjack]

no,that should be fine,i have 2 drives in front of me ,and one is seagate at 0.451A and one Toshiba at 1.0A i use them in an Blac X external usb device and they both perform the same

[sirlink99]

thanks for your help

[caperjack]

your welcome good luck ,hope new drives works for you

[Jamesadam432]

in my view there are several causes of the problem that the system does not recognise the hard drive like the data cable or the power supply can be damaged or there can be some missing of file in the operating system .