I think the hard drive just died

I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop and it tells me, "primary hard disk drive 0 not found" on start-up. I also hear clicking sounds coming from where the hard drive is located so I'm pretty sure it died. It has done this once before though and then started fine after a few days... Do you think it's the hard drive? The bios tells me "none"

What is the order of longevity for each piece of a computer? What usually dies first, second, third... and in what time increments.

Would you recommend getting a new laptop that would allow Windows XP pro if they are still around? or just replace the hard drive on the 5100?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give

 

If the bios cannot see the hard drive and it's making a clicking sound then smart money says the drive is probably dead or dying.

Well I have had HDDs arriving dead. Some have lasted a few months and some I still have from years ago. As to the rest of your question, the answer is how long is a piece of string

Since you have not stated how old the laptop is, I would just replace the hdd.

As an aside, one of my children is still using one of my old Dell laptops, a Latitude C600. It's still running speedily and very well. It was purchased in 2001. A few years ago I upgraded the cpu to 1Ghz and ram to 512Mb (both max).

Good Luck

 

Check the obvious first - make sure the hard drive connections are securely fastened, in the oft chance one came loose. If secure, then I agree, it looks like the drive died.

If me, I would pull the drive, note the maker and model for later, note any jumper settings, then install it in an enclosure, or install it in a computer as a secondary drive using a Notebook to IDE Hard Drive Adapter. If that computer sees the drive, good. If not, then the drive is toast. This is bad, obviously because now it has to be replaced, but also because you are stuck with a hard drive you better NOT get rid of because any sensitive data on it can still be recovered by a determined badguy. :mad

Typically, you would - Should! - MUST!! "wipe" a hard drive before getting rid of it. This can be done with Eraser. That is not possible for a drive that does not work. In those cases and yours, I recommend clamping the drive to a bench, and drilling three 1/4" holes through the platters. The expense, time, training, and special equipment needed to recover anything left after that would deter any badguy.

Good thing everyone keeps a current backups of their critical data, huh? If not, there are specialized data recovery services available. They disassemble the drive, then analyze each byte directly from the platters, recover anything possible and reassemble it. Very expensive but often well worth it when the data is worth much more than the hardware.

If the second computer sees the drive, you have a decision to make. Any further use of the drive may increase further corruption and lesson the chances of recovering your data too. So do you quickly attempt to copy off all your data? Or quickly attempt to repair the damage and (hopefully) fix the drive? Only you can place a value on the data.

Since drives are relatively cheap, I would copy off any documents, email, pictures, favorites, and move on to some analysis, and hopefully (not a lot of hope, but some) recovery of the drive. Go to Start > Run, and enter chkdsk x: /r (where "x" is the drive letter for that drive). This can run for many hours on large drives, appearing to hung, just be patient. Chkdsk will attempt to repair any damaged sector on the drive, mark those it can't as unavailable, and attempt to repair the file and partition tables too.

I also recommend downloading and running the Hard Drive Diagnostics for your drive.

Having said all that, clicking sounds can certainly be indicative of mechanical failure and there's no recovery from that. But clicking can also be the read/write head mechanism banging against the stops for some reason that may be correctable - worth the little bit of effort to find out. If nothing else, they may give you an opportunity to "wipe" the drive properly before tossing it.

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There are too many variables to determine what component will fail first. All 1 billion Windows machines become unique after first power up. I agree with r_r, I've had drives DOA, and I have drives running 24/7 for the last 7 years.

If I had to pick, I would say fans.

 

Thank you risk_reversal and Digerati. Luckily I backed up the data a few weeks ago before it died. If I am to get rid of the computer completely, will the ram also have private information stored on it from the last time I used the computer?

What if I were to swipe a very strong magnet over the hard drive. Would that clear all personal data?

If I were to buy a new laptop that runs Windows XP pro, which would you recommend? (it's used primarily for audio recording/production/performing).
Any brands I should stay away from? I haven't been very happy with Dell but they gave me a new computer when the old one died and now this one is gone...

Is there a place to buy old laptop PC's that have never been used/opened for very cheap?

 

Ram is volatile and once the power is removed the info will equally disappear.

Just get a hammer.

Personally, I love Dell reason being that their website has comprehensive service manuals on how to completely disassemble laptops as well as all the drivers required. In addition, used spare parts are available in greater numbers than other makes and can [usually] be easily and cheaply purchased on ebay.

Good Luck

 

As far as a magnet - it would have to be big, industrial, 10lbs or bigger as the hard drive case is designed to prevent magnetic interference.

A big hammer is fine, AS LONG AS you destroy the platters. That is actually not too easy - unless you have a big sledge hammer, and lot's of built-up frustration. The drill is easier.

 

Hello,
Magnets have been proven not to be effective against newer drives (newer than about 2000).

 

Sorry, but that is incorrect. Magnets work quite well - but as I noted above, they must be big, 10lbs or bigger. And generally they must sit on the drive for several days. So the process obviously is not practical, but IS, most definitely, very effective. And for the record, newer drives may be more susceptible, not less! Although the drive makers have incorporated better shielding in recent years, the platters have become more dense - that is, more 1s and 0s can fit in the same amount of space. In order to put more in the same space, the magnetic particles representing the 1s and 0s are smaller, much smaller, and therefore take less magnetic energy to reorient their alignment.

What has happened since 2000 however, is the realization that most folks, wisely, don't keep large industrial magnets near computer equipment. Nor do they want to keep drives sitting around with magnets sitting on them, using a magnet does not meet DoD "sanitizing" standards, and you have to remount the drive to verify it is no longer readable. So programs like Erasure mentioned earlier, or KillDisk became popular, as did using a drill.

 

I stand corrected. Thank you!

 

NP - good thing it just happened to be something I knew about!

 

Is there a Mac OS version of Eraser?

If not, what would be its' equivalent?

 

Google

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Security/Permanent-Eraser.shtml
http://www.howtowipeyourdrive.com/macintosh.aspx
http://www.whitecanyon.com/erase-hard-drive-mac.php