laptop dropped, now no operating system found :o(

mustbemad

Hi,

My baby swiped my laptop off the table yesterday and now it is knackered ( It is only 3 months old aswell! I know they won't fix it under the warranty as it was dropped but how much is it likely to cost to fix?

I have also lost all of the pictures I have taken over the last fortnight (hundreds!) I'm guessing there is no way these can be recovered since the hard drive cant be found.

I have checked on the BIOS and the hard drive is not being picked up at all, it just says IDE: 0. I tried booting the laptop using the default factory disc that I made but it didnt help. It said that it was copying the image then it just went to a grey screen with an arrow that just hung there until I switched it off.

Its an Acer Aspire 3680 series, does anyone know if I opened up where the harddrive is to check that it is not just a case if a loose connection, would this invalidate the warranty for any other problems that might occur at a later date? If it is okay to do this, any hints on were the harddrive is on an Acer aspire?

Sorry for all of the questions!

MBM x

seaweasel

You could give the warranty repair a go, they can only say no. When the HD on my fiance's iBook died, I managed to mount it on my desktop with a firewire cable in target mode to get it backed up before it ground to a halt. Not sure if that's do-able with windows however, and of course your drive might be past that stage. It could just be a cable of course, I'd imagine that any repairs or upgrades other than the likes of RAM might invalidate the warranty however.

Browntoa

the hard disk cover is underneath to the right (if the battery is at the bottom)

it's worth opening this just to check the hd is connected properly (it's no different to opening the cover to fit ram so I cannot see this invalidating the warranty)

look here

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/as3680/index.htm

under views then look underneath and it shows you where, only a couple of screws

Little_John

Sounds like the hard drive has bitten the dust.

you have a few options.
contact the shop you bought it from sales of goods act holds them responsible not the manufacturer. they should replace, repair whatever don't tell them it has been dropped they wont know. as far as you know the hard drive has failed.

you could just replace the drive, laptop drives are not expensive any more about £60 gets you 100GB reinstall and away you go.

the data its more than likley gone you could send it away for data recovery but that can be expensive nd sometimes you dont get anything back.

If you are local to me I will hav a look at it for you, I have some data recovery tools and have had 100% sucess if I can get the drive to detect. in some way.

I doubt it will be a loose connection, space is so tight in laptops and there are very few cables that can move hard drives are usually in a caddy that is screwed in to place to hold it secure.

opening up the laptop will proberbly not invalidate the warrenty but removing the drive proberbly will. its up to you.

mustbemad

Browntoa wrote: »

the hard disk cover is underneath to the right (if the battery is at the bottom)

it's worth opening this just to check the hd is connected properly (it's no different to opening the cover to fit ram so I cannot see this invalidating the warranty)

look here

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/as3680/index.htm

under views then look underneath and it shows you where, only a couple of screws

How strange!! When I quote your message, I can see more text that isnt in the main window!

I was just going to ask if opening it would invalidate the warranty but now I can see you answered that q aswell )

MBM x

Browntoa

I updated it , probably after you first read my post

I'd open the cover, make sure it's seated ok by pushing it back then turn it on again

I'm with Little John on the not mentioning the fall it had

which shop did you buy it from ??

same offer here for the data recovery if you are near

espresso

On some Acers that I have seen, the hard disk is visible after the battery has been removed. You may be able to simply pull it out and re-seat it to see if that helps.

mustbemad

Little_John wrote: »

Sounds like the hard drive has bitten the dust.

you have a few options.
contact the shop you bought it from sales of goods act holds them responsible not the manufacturer. they should replace, repair whatever don't tell them it has been dropped they wont know. as far as you know the hard drive has failed.

you could just replace the drive, laptop drives are not expensive any more about £60 gets you 100GB reinstall and away you go.

the data its more than likley gone you could send it away for data recovery but that can be expensive nd sometimes you dont get anything back.

If you are local to me I will hav a look at it for you, I have some data recovery tools and have had 100% sucess if I can get the drive to detect. in some way.

I doubt it will be a loose connection, space is so tight in laptops and there are very few cables that can move hard drives are usually in a caddy that is screwed in to place to hold it secure.

opening up the laptop will proberbly not invalidate the warrenty but removing the drive proberbly will. its up to you.

The laptop is not damaged in any other way by the fall but I thought they could tell a mile off if a laptop had been dropped? I would be too chicken to try and swing it anyway, I just know that my face would be glowing red as soon as they ask me what is wrong with it!

Thanks for the offer to look at it but I am in London and I can see from your profile thing that you are in Bolton (

Do you have any idea how much a manufacturer would charge to put a new hard drive in?

Thanks

MBM x

Browntoa

problem is it may be the motherboard thats damaged....

i'd just say it's stopped working

mustbemad

espresso wrote: »

On some Acers that I have seen, the hard disk is visible after the battery has been removed. You may be able to simply pull it out and re-seat it to see if that helps.

Thanks for the tip, I had a look and nothing is visible :sad:

It was worth a look though!

MBMx

mustbemad

Browntoa wrote: »

problem is it may be the motherboard thats damaged....

i'd just say it's stopped working

Thanks for your kind offer to help recover my data :A You are bit closer but still quite far away.

If I was to forget to mention the 'little fall' how likely are they to take one look at the inside and rumble me? I would feel terrible doing it, but I may be able to put my morals away for a bit to get my laptop back, I am going crazy without it already!

edited to say it was bought from comet

MBM x