[ale] OT. Dead harddrive on laptop

[Ron Frazier]

Cornelis,

Just to clarify a bit.  I didn't realize an external drive was under 
consideration.  I guess I didn't read your post fully.

Regarding the internal drive.  If it is mechanically damaged, or has a 
bad controller, etc., no software will fix it.  However, computers often 
fail to boot because some data that they're trying to read during boot 
is corrupted.  If a critical file has been deleted or something, 
Spinrite wouldn't be able to fix that.  However, in many cases, the 
files are there, but parts of the sector have been corrupted where the 
data is stored.  The computer usually tries to read a whole sector at a 
time and gives up rather easily if it can't read it.  If Spinrite 
recovered damaged sectors enough so that the OS can read them, it is 
possible that the part of the sector that was damaged was not a critical 
boot file, but that the sector contained a critical boot file.  Once the 
sector became unreadable, for whatever reason, that critical file 
couldn't be read either.  If you fix the sector enough to be readable 
again, then that critical file might be readable.  I hope that makes any 
sense whatsoever.  In any case, it is entirely possible that Spinrite 
could restore the machine's ability to boot, and it often does, but is 
not guaranteed to do so, depending on the nature of the failure.

Now, I should point out that Spinrite must be booted from a floppy disk 
or a CD.  So, since you don't have a floppy, you'd probably have to boot 
from CD.  You could boot from a floppy attached to USB, but we haven't 
established that you can boot from USB.  More on that later.  There is 
sometimes a setting in the BIOS that tells if you can boot from CD.  
Sometimes the machine will boot from a CD automatically.  Sometimes you 
have to press a key to boot the cd or get a menu from which to boot the 
CD.  You may have already mastered this problem, since you mentioned the 
SUSE installer.

In any case, if you can boot from CD, you can use something such as 
Spinrite, or tools on The Ultimate Boot CD, or even a Linux Install Disc 
to run diagnostics and tests on the hard drive in the computer, even if 
that hard drive cannot be booted on its own.

Now, I should mention that you would have to create said CD's on a 
computer that is bootable and working, or you'd have to order them by 
mail, if that's an option.  If you burn your own CD's, be aware that 
really old machines, like my Win98 one (now running Lubuntu but 
decommissioned for being too slow), don't always like to read homemade 
CD's.  Use a quality brand of blank disk to burn to improve your odds.

As for a USB drive, if the computer is pre 2000 vintage, it may not be 
able to boot from USB.  I have an old Win98 laptop that falls into that 
category.  It also has USB 1 rather than USB 2.  USB 1 is MUCH MUCH 
slower.  Look in the BIOS for anything that mentions USB or USB 
emulation or USB booting and turn it on.  Then, look for stuff that 
relates to the boot order.  If you want, and if the option is there, you 
can set the system to boot first from the USB port, then the internal 
hard drive.  So, if the system has this capability and if a USB drive is 
plugged in that's bootable, the system can boot from it.  I keep my 
systems set to boot from internal HDD, then CD, then USB.  If the 
internal drive is functioning, it will boot from that.  If the internal 
HDD is not working, and a bootable CD is in the drive, it will boot from 
that.  If the internal HDD is not working, and there is no CD in the 
drive, and a bootable USB device exists, it will boot from that.  Any 
time I want, I can press the special key, which varies by computer, and 
get a menu and force a boot from any device.

In general, booting from USB, even if you can, is a bad idea unless you 
have a special reason like testing, etc.  The USB port is going to be 
much slower than the internal HDD interface.  If your PC has USB 1, 
don't even think about it.  However, as someone else mentioned, if you 
have access to eSata or USB 3, then booting an external drive becomes a 
lot more practical, other than the fact you have to attach it to boot.

Regarding the BIOS.  You MIGHT be able to boot a Live Linux Install 
disc, access the internet, and get a more recent BIOS patch.  Installing 
it may be a problem, since the files are usually an executable that has 
to run from DOS or Windows.  Some BIOS's have a deal where you can 
access the patch file from within the BIOS and it will do the upgrade.  
But, the patch file has to be stored somewhere, which needs a functional 
hard drive.  You would have to research the particular procedure for 
your computer.  Make sure you've got all the bases covered if you 
attempt this.  Usually, if you start a BIOS upgrade and it fails in the 
middle, there is a good likelihood it will "brick" the computer and make 
it unusable.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Ron


On 1/24/2012 8:05 PM, Cornelis van Dijk wrote:
> Thank you all for the quick reply.
>
> I should have mentioned that the drive does not want to boot anymore,
> it just hangs with an idiot message about a wireless (RealTek) gadget
> which needs its cables checked. As far as I know there is no such
> thing on this laptop.
>
> The BIOS still sees the drive but not the USB external Seagate. The
> install program of suse 11.2 *does* see the external drive and I guess
> I could install the OS on that, but would it boot?
> Is there a way to force the BIOS to recognize the external drive? I
> can find no mention of the USB drive anywhere in the BIOS (it mentions
> a floppy, but this laptop does not even have a floppy!) Upgrading the
> BIOS is probably also out of the question because of the boot problem.
> It is a Phoenix BIOS from 1999.
>
> It is kind of hard to see how programs like Spinrite would help if I
> am not able to boot. Sorry for the incomplete information. Good to
> know anyway.
>
> Also good to know that these thing are user serviceable. It is a
> Fujitsu drive. I guess I have to open the thing up. (A year ago I
> succesfully mucked around inside my Sony Viao, disconnected a faulty
> ventilator fan; thing does not seem to mind.)
>
> Thanks again and any further help will be appreciated,
>
> Cor van Dijk
>
>    

-- 

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Ron Frazier

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