dog kills laptop

bigblackdog

my laptop was flipped off the table onto the floor by my dog , but at the time was still working and i continued to watch iplayer for another hr or so before shutting down in the normal manner .
Now i switch on and get the usual 'vaio' logo before it goes to a black screen , some seconds later this message appears :

' A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+del to restart
_ '


I do what it says and the same thing happens again , 'Vaio' logo /blackscreen/message , there is no way to turn it off unless i hold down the power button , something must have broken inside it do you think? , just seems funny it continued to work after it hit the floor , but wont work now , many thanks for any advice or opinions

steve1980

The hardrive cable could have become loose. Remove the back and make sure the connection is firm. Also ensure there isn't anything else loose or any glaring cracks anywhere.

macman

Or (worse) hard drive possibly damaged.
Will it boot into Safe Mode maybe?

bigblackdog

macman wrote: »

Or (worse) hard drive possibly damaged.
Will it boot into Safe Mode maybe?

it wont do anything , i just get a dull beep from any button i press during startup , all it will do is give me the message to press ctrl+alt+delete

i have shaken it to see if anything sounds loose , doesnt seem to be , i will take the bottom off it and look inside

kwikbreaks

Assuming reseating the drive in the connector doesn't fix it (and I doubt it will) if you have a bootable windows cd you could try repairing the boot sector. If no go then if you have a drive caddy you try a full checkdisk on it from a different machine (You could try some linux voodo from a live distro too of course).

Failing that it's a new drive (not expensive) and restore it from your last drive image backup. If do have or can borrow a caddy there is an outside chance that something like testdisk could recover any odds and ends updated since your last backup from the dodgy drive - it can't be totally cream crackered or it wouldn't have carried on playing the movie.

bigblackdog

i have taken the casing from the bottom , everything seems to be in order

bigblackdog

the drive is the square thing right?

kwikbreaks

Yes except being pedantic they are oblong rather than square - about 4x3inches.

They are usually held in with screws and push into a connector block. If it has come loose I'll be very very surprised. It's much more likely that the head touched the drive surface. As it carried on playing though the head may not be damaged.

bigblackdog

it did seem loose as i removed it , i will reassemle everything , and see , i may be very lucky

bigblackdog

no joy , it is still the same ,

macman

Are your sure you are looking at the hard drive and not the DVD drive?