Slow laptop Pt2 :(

Zeb · 11th May 2007, 13:11

You might remember my previous thread regarding constant disk accessing on my laptop? Today, it made some deliciously crunchy noises and froze solid....having tried rebooting etc. and failing to get anywhere I then tried going into setup at the pre-boot stage...which told me I had no Hard Drive! So having reconfigured this it then started and went through chkdsk collecting orphaned files etc. It has now just restarted as I type on OH's laptop. No crunchy noises from the Hd and all seems well. My question? Roughly how long have I got before my entire HD content is gone forever?:SHOCKED:

Gryphon · 11th May 2007, 13:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeb

You might remember my previous thread regarding constant disk accessing on my laptop? Today, it made some deliciously crunchy noises and froze solid....having tried rebooting etc. and failing to get anywhere I then tried going into setup at the pre-boot stage...which told me I had no Hard Drive! So having reconfigured this it then started and went through chkdsk collecting orphaned files etc. It has now just restarted as I type on OH's laptop. No crunchy noises from the Hd and all seems well. My question? Roughly how long have I got before my entire HD content is gone forever?:SHOCKED:

Could be 1 min 1 hour a year or forever you can never tell really just make sure you have a back up of your important data.

Zeb · 11th May 2007, 13:19

I am busily backing up (again) now.....all my blinking job applications / cvs and stuff....better to have multiple copies rather than none at all methinks!

JohnDotCom · 11th May 2007, 21:29

Mark any Bad sectors Zeb to stop access to those areas of Hard Drive, but as stated it sounds like aa early sign of failure.
Does your Hard Drive have SMART activated in Bios?
This at least can sometimes detect problems before they get serious on your Hard Drive and warn you.

Zeb · 11th May 2007, 21:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnDotCom

Mark any Bad sectors Zeb to stop access to those areas of Hard Drive, but as stated it sounds like aa early sign of failure.
Does your Hard Drive have SMART activated in Bios?
This at least can sometimes detect problems before they get serious on your Hard Drive and warn you.

Smart now activated but how do I mark bad sectors?

Zeb · 12th May 2007, 09:28

Oh well, too late, it died this morning

with all my photos not backed up because the cdr/w drive failed too...time for a (cheap) new one!

JohnDotCom · 12th May 2007, 09:36

Sorry to hear that Zeb, don't throw it away you may be able to have some photos recovered depending on how bad the Hard Drive is.

I keep saying to people and comapnies you must keep making regular Backups, it can cost thousands of Pounds to retrieve missing data but Companies have to because they need it.

Laptop Hard Drives are quite cheap now Zeb, dependant of course on how much you want to spend.

What size, Speed and Budget do you have? I may be able to source you a Good Price. PM me if you like.

Zeb · 12th May 2007, 09:50

Thanks John, I think, given that the screen connections are going....strange colours creeping in..and the dead CD drive..I need a new one! So any recommendations for something around the £400 mark will be welcome.

Happily, the dead one is a works computer aand as I am leaving...lol...I will keep the HD however as I suspect I can indeed get the photos off...next time I am getting a proper seperate HD as back up!

BMC123 · 12th May 2007, 11:39

Thing is, many people don't think about backups until its too late... and I have one or two customers who i have known over the years, and they have suffered drive failure not once, but twice! and in each occasion, despite having lost data before they still had no backups.

Some people you just cannot help.

I bought one of those DVD holders in poundstretcher (for a pound

) and I sat down one day and burned all my music, photographs and downloads onto the DVDs. I numbered them, and used an ftp program to get a directory listing of each one, and pasted that into word, so now I have a list of everything i have

Zeb · 12th May 2007, 18:32

Having stuck the Hd in the freezer for an hour I have got it working again and removed the last of my data....so now I am seeing what I can do via software to keep it running for a few more days....

and as the gentlemen say, back up your data!

11th May 2007, 13:11	#1
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Slow laptop Pt2 :( You might remember my previous thread regarding constant disk accessing on my laptop? Today, it made some deliciously crunchy noises and froze solid....having tried rebooting etc. and failing to get anywhere I then tried going into setup at the pre-boot stage...which told me I had no Hard Drive! So having reconfigured this it then started and went through chkdsk collecting orphaned files etc. It has now just restarted as I type on OH's laptop. No crunchy noises from the Hd and all seems well. My question? Roughly how long have I got before my entire HD content is gone forever?:SHOCKED:

12th May 2007, 11:39	#9
BMC123 Posted a thing or two 2004 1.8 Connoisseur SE, 1999 XJ8 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,163 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Thing is, many people don't think about backups until its too late... and I have one or two customers who i have known over the years, and they have suffered drive failure not once, but twice! and in each occasion, despite having lost data before they still had no backups. Some people you just cannot help. I bought one of those DVD holders in poundstretcher (for a pound ) and I sat down one day and burned all my music, photographs and downloads onto the DVDs. I numbered them, and used an ftp program to get a directory listing of each one, and pasted that into word, so now I have a list of everything i have __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

11th May 2007, 13:19	#3
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I am busily backing up (again) now.....all my blinking job applications / cvs and stuff....better to have multiple copies rather than none at all methinks!

11th May 2007, 21:29	#4
JohnDotCom * Rover 75 FaceLift Tourer CDTi 170BHP Auto ConnSE 2005 Model Starlight Silver Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Abergele Posts: 28,735 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	Mark any Bad sectors Zeb to stop access to those areas of Hard Drive, but as stated it sounds like aa early sign of failure. Does your Hard Drive have SMART activated in Bios? This at least can sometimes detect problems before they get serious on your Hard Drive and warn you.

12th May 2007, 09:28	#6
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Oh well, too late, it died this morning with all my photos not backed up because the cdr/w drive failed too...time for a (cheap) new one!

12th May 2007, 09:36	#7
JohnDotCom * Rover 75 FaceLift Tourer CDTi 170BHP Auto ConnSE 2005 Model Starlight Silver Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Abergele Posts: 28,735 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	Sorry to hear that Zeb, don't throw it away you may be able to have some photos recovered depending on how bad the Hard Drive is. I keep saying to people and comapnies you must keep making regular Backups, it can cost thousands of Pounds to retrieve missing data but Companies have to because they need it. Laptop Hard Drives are quite cheap now Zeb, dependant of course on how much you want to spend. What size, Speed and Budget do you have? I may be able to source you a Good Price. PM me if you like.

12th May 2007, 09:50	#8
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thanks John, I think, given that the screen connections are going....strange colours creeping in..and the dead CD drive..I need a new one! So any recommendations for something around the £400 mark will be welcome. Happily, the dead one is a works computer aand as I am leaving...lol...I will keep the HD however as I suspect I can indeed get the photos off...next time I am getting a proper seperate HD as back up!

12th May 2007, 18:32	#10
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Having stuck the Hd in the freezer for an hour I have got it working again and removed the last of my data....so now I am seeing what I can do via software to keep it running for a few more days.... and as the gentlemen say, back up your data!