Computer hardware people

It's very unlikely that the hard drive is toast, they are rated for 200g's. First make sure the HD is plugged all the way in. If it is then the motherboard is probably toast. Just unplug the hard drive and take it to a computer shop they will be able to transfer your data easily.

What brand is it?
 
Dell. I'll pick up one of those adapters and see if I can pull everything off of it. If I can, then I'll get it just in case and have Tony drop it off at a local shop to check out the motherboard. If it was a desktop I could replace it but I'm not really familiar with working on laptops (unless it's very obvious where to replace the parts).
 
Dell. I'll pick up one of those adapters and see if I can pull everything off of it. If I can, then I'll get it just in case and have Tony drop it off at a local shop to check out the motherboard. If it was a desktop I could replace it but I'm not really familiar with working on laptops (unless it's very obvious where to replace the parts).

check with Dell, they often have extended warranties. They can check by the serial and model number
 
Ok - so I've got my adapter cable. He's got a SATA drive. I've hooked it all up. I plugged it into the USB of my computer. I can hear his drive try to spin. My laptop said that a mass storage device is installed and ready to use - but it doesn't show up in My computer. The only place I can find it is in the Safely remove hardware window.

What happened?
 
Ok - so I've got my adapter cable. He's got a SATA drive. I've hooked it all up. I plugged it into the USB of my computer. I can hear his drive try to spin. My laptop said that a mass storage device is installed and ready to use - but it doesn't show up in My computer. The only place I can find it is in the Safely remove hardware window.

What happened?

Try taking the drive and adapter to a local small computer store, not a big box store. Just ask to see if they can see the drive and adapter on one of there computers. They will probably do it for free. BTW, drives have a typical life expectancy of around five years.
 
Ok... so I was kind of right about it being the hard drive. Took it to a local guy, he confirmed. Ordered a new drive, installed windows, etc. Tony has it for maybe all of a week (if that) and Sunday morning it makes the same beeps and won't boot up. Brand new hard drive is now bad. What would cause it to continually go bad? Something with the motherboard?
 
First problem = Dell uses junk drives and parts.

If he needs to recover some data give me a call.

Whatever you do dont replace it with another Dell.
 
Which Truesdale is this?

I think the data on the original drive is gone for good. I had a local computer shop confirm it.

I'm just not sure what would make the second one go bad. any ideas?

-Elizabeth
 
Which Truesdale is this?

I think the data on the original drive is gone for good. I had a local computer shop confirm it.

I'm just not sure what would make the second one go bad. any ideas?

-Elizabeth

Well... the two drives have but one thing in common... the same motherboard that was in the unit when it suffered a beat down. ;)

Just a guess.
 
The last one that ****ed me off got flung out in the yard and shot full of holes. I keep it to occasionally show to my new computers as a reminder to behave. ;)


Haha, I hang mine out the window of the car every once it a while to remind it whose boss.
 
That was my thought.

It is pretty easy to crack a trace on a motherboard. I am not sure if I already posted this... or just thought it... but I have built about a half-dozen desktops since the mid-90s. I have had board failures in about three boards. It was usually a board failure that triggered the next build. I never had a "bad" hard drive. And I was even running a pair of 9 gig Seagate Cheetahs at like 10,000 rpm in 1999. They would get so hot that you could cook on them. Never went "bad." But they have been connected to several different motherboards over the years.
 
It is pretty easy to crack a trace on a motherboard. I am not sure if I already posted this... or just thought it... but I have built about a half-dozen desktops since the mid-90s. I have had board failures in about three boards. It was usually a board failure that triggered the next build. I never had a "bad" hard drive. And I was even running a pair of 9 gig Seagate Cheetahs at like 10,000 rpm in 1999. They would get so hot that you could cook on them. Never went "bad." But they have been connected to several different motherboards over the years.

One of mine currently runs a pair of 73gig 15,000rpm Cheetah scsi's with dual xeon's. It's pretty fast, I'll pull the cover and check temps with a gun one of these days.

Or cook dinner and tell you how long to get a steak to medium rare......:ack2:
 
Best bet is to find a fat 12 year old kid- they can fix computers better than any Best Buy squad person ever could.

Dell? I'll never own another..
 
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