Any computer-savvy gentlemen among us?

[southtexas]

My dell latitude is giving me a no hard drive detected error message when running diagnostics. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I assume this might be a bad thing. Now when I turn it on, I get a black screen that says, among other things, "no boot device found. Press any key to reboot...". When I press a key, it reboots to the same screen and message.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[antbkny]

Your hard drive is probably kaput

[Laszlo]

You can go to Fry's or some sort of computer store and buy a hard drive enclosure, they're about thirty dollars. Remove the hard drive from your dead computer. Install it inside the enclosure. When you get a new computer, plug in the enclosure via USB as an external hard drive and most of the time you'll be able to access all of your stored files. I've done this countless of times and actually have three from past systems that have failed.

[kaseri]

I have over 20 years experience in global corporate IT. Just because your Dell is showing a "no boot device" error does not absolutely mean the data is unrecoverable. Your MBR may be corrupt which would throw an error such as this.

There are command line tools built into Windows that you can use to reset the "boot device" & MBR but this requires building a WINPE boot USB thumb drive. Building a WINPE boot USB is quite advanced and requires intimate knowledge of the Windows AIK tools.

If I were you I would get an external USB SATA drive adapter (about $20 USD) and connect the drive to the adapter. Then plug the adapter with the drive connected to a running computer and see if you're able to access/view the data. Removing the HDD from a Dell is quite easy and usually requires removing 2-4 philips screws. After removing the screws the drive should just slide out. Occasionally the HDD is located on the bottom of the machine under a metal or plastic bottom plate.

Remember the most important thing is recovering the data.

[james1787]

Originally Posted by Laszlo

You can go to Fry's or some sort of computer store and buy a hard drive enclosure, they're about thirty dollars. Remove the hard drive from your dead computer. Install it inside the enclosure. When you get a new computer, plug in the enclosure via USB as an external hard drive and most of the time you'll be able to access all of your stored files. I've done this countless of times and actually have three from past systems that have failed.

x3 Also 20ish years in IT. Whether its a laptop or desktop computer.. there's a good chance it will work, as it could just be Windows & the MBR that went kaput (and there are utilities to fix that.. but I much prefer to salvage the data first and then determine the health of the drive and reload with a fresh install).

[southtexas]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like I will need to get professional help tomorrow morning. I appreciate the feedback.

[stephentross]

Hi there, IF and only IF your hard drive is determined to be kaput. There is a controller that may be able to be replaced, depending on the hard drive model.

OR

Toss it in the freezer for a few hours. Tighten that metal up. Then install in external enclosure and get ready to copy to new hard drive as fast as you can.

[jolimont]

switch it off and then switch it on

[mailman]

Here's one

http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=214884

[linesiders]

Do you have a backup?

If yes, get it fixed, I do not recommend the nongeek to try to fix boot records / not booting drives and seeing you are asking I assume you are non geek

If your information is significantly important and you have no backup - get it to a drive recovery place

If you info is important and have good backup have someone that knows what they are doing reinstall windows on a new drive or fix the same drive and reconfigure your laptop and restore the files. After confirming you have a good backup.

There are actually other variations in the above but there are a lot of questions to be asked.

[GermanyMatt]

If you can boot into the bios, make sure the hard drive is set as the first boot option. Other than that, you've probably got a dead or dying hard drive.

[b06tmm]

Originally Posted by stephentross

Toss it in the freezer for a few hours. Tighten that metal up. Then install in external enclosure and get ready to copy to new hard drive as fast as you can.

Now that is old school!

Put it in a zip-lock bag first.

[bp1000]

Good advice here

Mbr and hdd enclosure good choices however I have a feeling they mean nothing.

I would that for less than $50 a local computer help shop could help you out. It isn't worth your time trying I fiddle with removing and trying to mount the drive up.

[linesiders]

Originally Posted by b06tmm

Now that is old school!

Put it in a zip-lock bag first.

Still works though - I have saved a couple drives long enough to retrieve data with the Freezer Trick

[kaseri]

Resetting the boot device on a command line level can and many times does solve this type of issue. I'm not sure if it will work for the OP but if he brought the drive to me it's the first thing I would expect my techs to attempt. It's not something one should consider if they don't have experience doing it though.

[77T]

You always have the option of seeking a local shop to help. There is a slim chance that you will be getting an email soon from the guy who infected your machine - he'll offer to "fix" it for a small fee.

Fairly rare but is still happening especially at public, open wifi hotspots.

[southtexas]

Update---so I took my computer to our local repair shop and we couldn't get it to give the same error message! It worked as it normally should. I showed him a pic of the error message and he thinks a cord was just loose and worked itself back into place. Sounds possible I guess. Thanks anyways for all the tips.


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[Welshwatchman]

Originally Posted by southtexas

Update---so I took my computer to our local repair shop and we couldn't get it to give the same error message! It worked as it normally should. I showed him a pic of the error message and he thinks a cord was just loose and worked itself back into place. Sounds possible I guess. Thanks anyways for all the tips.


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Now's the time to think "If the old drive was frazzled is there anything on there I'd miss?".

If the answer is yes, get the stuff onto an external HD / Mem Card ASAP.

You could also consider genning up on a "full image backup" to an external device.

This would allow you to easily restore everything onto a new hard drive if it occurs again.

[southtexas]

Yessir excellent advice. Will be backing up to ext hard drive. Also considering carbonite or a like service. Waste of money or money well spent?


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[Old Expat Beast]

Dropbox is pretty good, too. All my work and photos from the last 15 years is up there, and the research materials from my last and next book. Can access it from anywhere, anytime. About US$100 a year for 100GB as I recall, and free for a much smaller amount.

[southtexas]

Thanks Adam. I'll look into Dropbox.


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[Kobayashi]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

Dropbox is pretty good, too. All my work and photos from the last 15 years is up there, and the research materials from my last and next book. Can access it from anywhere, anytime. About US$100 a year for 100GB as I recall, and free for a much smaller amount.

I also recommend Dropbox. Just announced today, with the competition by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, Dropbox will drop their prices to $10/month for one terabyte of data.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2...azon/14660423/

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by Kobayashi

I also recommend Dropbox. Just announced today, with the competition by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, Dropbox will drop their prices to $10/month for one terabyte of data.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2...azon/14660423/

Typical. I just renewed last month.

[linesiders]

BTW - if anyone is interested in the best (PC) backup system for home: StorageCraft's ShadowProtect Desktop (about $90) and an external drive (better, one that backups up to the cloud). This is the home version of the system I use to backup client's servers and is a fantastic piece of software.

If you are REALLY serious about encrypted home backup I would suggest a Datto (or similar) device coupled with ShadowProtect.

This last item is not cheap but should the Martians decide your computer is the key to their survival, I can restore your computer a couple days later on different hardware.