Hey guys. I have a HP laptop, and my hard drive just seems to have gone... dno what to call it, but any way I'm really annoyed. Basically, I turn on the laptop and it stays on the main logo screen whilst doing the POST checks at startup, then after something like 5 mins it will say no hard drive found and then do the same again. It won't even boot from ANY system recovery disk so I am unable to do a repair, and it fails the SELF Test in the BIOS. I have checked my Hard Drive is inserted properly, and I have tried it on a desktop computer with a 2.5" HDD USB caddy and it isn't recognised. There IS power to the drive as you can hear it spinning. The reason why I need to try and get this running again without losing any data is because I have some VERY important files that I have not backed up (I think I've learned my lesson about not backingup now ). If you guys have any suggestions, I would be most thankful. Thanks guys, Adam
Check if it's connected to your /mother/ ! Th, if it's a SATA disk - you can try to re-install it before the boot screen ..
Sometimes the HD controller on the bad HD fails before the drive fails fully. Try going into the bios when booting and manually setting the drive parameters. These are printed on the drive housing. If you are lucky enough to get it to boot, backup everything you need before you shut it down because eventually even this is not going to work. Can you boot from a CD with the HD removed from the system?