hard drive failure any hope??

moneypooh

My PC hard drive has failed and windows has failed to boot. Is there any hope of getting into it now.
I can access the start up instructions but after going from F2 it loads windows files then light blue blank screen and that's it.
Anything else I can do for free??

closed

exact symptom?

moneypooh

does not boot up completely.
it gets to loading windows files and then does not complete to log in screen

closed

that's a windows not loading, not a definite hard disk failure.

Try all the holding F8 options at boot.

Failing that, see the speedup sticky thread for how to rescue data with bootcd or caddy, and reinstall windows from factory restore partition if you don't have the windows disc,, and how to backup in future.

A.Penny.Saved

It does not sound like a hardware hard drive failure, more like a problem with the windows system files or settings.

Try pressing F8 to get a boot menu and try last known good config. System restore from that menu might work. It can be difficult getting the menu up on a system that boots without a menu. That is why I always have a menu because it gives me chance to access the boot options menu.

moneypooh

hard disk failure is imminent....


press f10 or f2 options only


f2 does not complete windows set up

no f8 option

closed

that's an exact symptom.

All you can do is try a bootcd or caddy, or pay 100s to a data recovery firm to get at the data.

new hard disks are around £40, reinstall windows and you should have a working machine.

If you'd had a £40 portable usb hard disk, a blank cd, and a macrium free backup, that would have meant you would be able to restore a working system to a new hard disk in minutes

Backbiter

I'd recommend downloading a bootable Ubuntu CD to try and get your PC up and running.
It sounds daunting but it really isn't. I used this guide:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...#comment-77881
when I had a similar problem to yours a few years ago. It got the PC running, and I was then able to run a Windows Recovery Disc, which repaired Windows for me, and I got a few more years out the hard drive.

bluesnake

closed wrote: »

Try all the holding F8 options at boot.

F8 on win 7 and below
shift-f8 on win 8 or above, but you have to get the timing of the key press right, as it is tricky sod, and can take loads of reboots to get in - thanks Bill .

The command is chkdsk /r or chkdsk /x

Heedtheadvice

It may be a hard disk failing or it might just be a corruption of a file/data on the disk.
My best option would initially test the hard drive. If it's failing then you will need to replace asap, possibly after successfully getting windows working again.
Disk manufacturers often provide diagnostics for disks that can boot up your PC from a cd (they have a limited op sys and drivers on the cd) and do hard drive tests. (hopefully your bios is still intact and allows CD boot!). You will then have a definitive report of hard drive status by the manufacturer independent of windows or other op. system. Often these diagnostics are not disk manufacturer specific.

This is a valuable first step to eliminate one possibility.
Good article at http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/tophddiag.htm covering many diagnostic options.

Such diagnostics as Seagate's disk tools are very good. See http://pcsupport.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=pcsupport&cdn=compute&tm=33&f=10&tt=65&bt=0&bts=51&zu=http%3A//www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
Western Digital have similar see http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/other/2779-701022.pdf

If drive is reported as OK then just fix windows and carry on!

gik

S-in-L had a hard drive failure despite multiple attempts I couldn't access her important (kids pics) files. I read somewhere that sticking it in a freezer wrapped in clingfilm overnight sometimes let you get access when you reconnect it to get your important stuff off of it. It worked to a certain extent as I got maybe 2/3 of the pics back. May be worth a shot. Work quickly though.