Need HDD Drive help ~ :(

[Rs2k_Rider]

Hi peeps,

Put this in here as need help and pc/computer side dont get many views ! lol


Bought a new dv7 laptop back in Feb, i7 spec. Anyway, last night it froze up and died... rebooted and told me that there was no hdd, insert bootable media..
So tried few things like repair and diagnostics built it to no avail.

The hdd is a 500gb samsung. Model - HM500JJ

Now, when the tech lads looked at the hdd at currys they could see the recovery partition and another small partition, they could see the main partition but could not access it... something to do with the master boot records being shot.

Does anyone know of a mbr fix that will work ? I have some info on there that I could do with accessing, after Ive got a copy I dont mind a full wipe.

Strangely enough, just before I got this laptop (dv7) ... my spare hdd in my old hp failed, which is also a samsung... 500gb... Model HM500LI ... Coincidence ??



Lastly, I want to get a 2tb nas drive..... whats the better ones out there for the least ££ :


Ty in advance peeps

 

[Explosivo]

if it's only the master boot records can't you just reinstall windows?

 

[hawkish]

I have a core 2tb from maplin - it is OK

Right, i have recently recovered data from a laptop doind the same thing. Once in 50 tries it would actially boot the windows logo and hang, your drive does sound knacked.

I used trinity iso to mount the internal and a usb drive, start an ssh server. On another PC i used putty to ssh into the trinity laptop and start midnight commander to locate the HDA1 and SDA1 folders. Then just copy over the things you want to keep and unmount the drives.

It is quick to do and I can make a tut if you like

 

[hawkish]

if it's only the master boot records can't you just reinstall windows?

as explosivo says try hirens boot cd to try and fix the mbr first. Do you dualboot operating systems? It is also possible that installing grub could be an easy fix. The easy way to do it is to put in an ubuntu cd and installing ubuntu alongside windows

 

[Rs2k_Rider]

Thanks for the replies lads, Neorage tried the Hirens boot cd last night with fix mbr or whatever it is and it said fixed, fk was it lol... dont even let me into recovery now on the laptop lol !

I know about as much about computers as I do space science lol ! So I will point neorage at this

It does not have duel boot I know that much just std win7 x64

If I were to reinstall, would that not overwrite the files I need ?

 

[ManofScience]

fixmbr is quite powerful, it will overwrite what is there ( a custom one for example) with a default MBR - this sounds like what it's done.

Personally, i'd take the HD out, connect it to a PC as a slave 2nd drive then use Recuva/GetDataBack to get the data you want off it onto the PC.

Then, clean install. You'll have bother now access/booting that recovery partition...

 

[Rs2k_Rider]

Hi all,

Tried all day with my father in law to get the drive to work with the stuff that was on it, nothing would work at all. So, had to do the dreaded re-install.

Reinstalled win7 h/p - but still shows a recovery sector from before, but can not access it through f11... says its loading it then just boots windows as normal lol.


I am deffo going to get a 2tb nas drive, found a 2 tb WD one earlier for around £100.... are they good ?

 

[neorage]

although all is now gone i will let ya know..

The MBR was fooked only for the main partition. the recovery and HP data partitions were showing up as ok.

tried to restore the MBR using vairous mbr progs on hirens but none worked.. and the partition itself was not showing up as valid data. my guess was a virus fooked it up well bad...

last time i had a dead mbr on multipul partitions nothing would show and was lucky enough to get 10/15 mings out of attempt 15 of win xp's fixboot and fix mbr tools..

drive seemed to be working ok other then the fubared partition table/mbr

puzzled me but at 1am though was best to call a night

 

[Rs2k_Rider]

although all is now gone i will let ya know..

The MBR was fooked only for the main partition. the recovery and HP data partitions were showing up as ok.

tried to restore the MBR using vairous mbr progs on hirens but none worked.. and the partition itself was not showing up as valid data. my guess was a virus fooked it up well bad...

last time i had a dead mbr on multipul partitions nothing would show and was lucky enough to get 10/15 mings out of attempt 15 of win xp's fixboot and fix mbr tools..

drive seemed to be working ok other then the fubared partition table/mbr

puzzled me but at 1am though was best to call a night

We tried to run the recovery partition with the hdd as slave in another computer, wouldnt even show as having anything in there space wise lol.