Puppy linux & windows drives, need help!

[dyamond]

Over the weekend my laptop (Dell studio 1558- win 7) crashed and it was suggested to me that I may be able to rescue some of my files from my seemingly dead hard drive using puppy. I had puppy loaded and went to try and access the drive but I couldn't seem to find it. It has listed my SanDisk cruiser USB drive, my CD/DVD drive and a floppy (???) drive but no hard drive. My laptop certainly does not have a floppy drive! lol is it possible that puppy is seeing the hard drive as a floppy? And if it really doesn't recognize the hard drive, where is it getting this floppy drive from?

Thanks for the help!

[sach2]

Hi dyamond,

I'm not sure of the reason for the ghost floppy. The HD partitions would usually start with sda and then a number. If you are not seeing any sda devices then it is not seeing the drive.

If this in the LCD notebook did BIOS give you the message no primary drive found before Puppy loaded? If BIOS doesn't see the drive then Puppy won't either.

***
If BIOS did say no Primary drive found then what I would try is instead of hitting F1 or F2 just hit ctrl + alt + del to restart. Try that about 20 times in a row and see if you get lucky and one time it actually sees the drive. Then let Puppy load up.

[dyamond]

Hi there!

When the LCD laptop boots up, with the bad drive connected, tapping f12 allows me to boot from CD. When I do that, I do not get a message about BIOS not being able to detect the hard drive. Puppy just boots right up.

[sach2]

If you don't hit F12 do you get the message about no HD each time telling you to hit F1 to continue? My idea was just to restart several times in a row after getting the F1 message in the hopes that one time the message is that the HD was FOUND. Then you would hit F1 to continue and it should still boot to Puppy since most computers will boot from CD if it is bootable.

If you leave the back cover off the laptop and put your fingers on the HD do you feel any vibration from it when you start up the laptop? I'm trying to figure out if BIOS tries to spin up the drive.

[dyamond]

If I don't hit F12, then yes the message come up but then automatically boots to CD. I did not feel any vibrations as it was initially booting up.

[dyamond]

Well crap, might as well forget it. I just got the LCD laptop back from someone "who knew what they were doing" because I didn't and they broke the stupid battery holder.



This was so UN helpful! Why do people say they know what they are doing when they don't?? Time for me to kill someone now.

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

Dymond, you have to mount the drives in puppy as the drives are not automatically mounted. If I recall in Puppy you do this with a right click on the desktop icons.

Here is a site to explain the process.

Many Windows Vista, 7 and 8 installations have a special recovery partition with size around 100 MB or 350 MB. If you have such partition, there is no need to use it. Your files and settings are on sda2 in such case.

On the battery.... don't loan your tech gear, dear!

[dyamond]

Originally Posted by BoredOutOfMyMind

Dymond, you have to mount the drives in puppy as the drives are not automatically mounted. If I recall in Puppy you do this with a right click on the desktop icons.

Here is a site to explain the process.



On the battery.... don't loan your tech gear, dear!

That's a great site, unfortunately it's useless not that the laptop is broken! *sigh I guess that what I get for trusting someone (for the record, I haven't killed anyone.... yet )

[sach2]

So the laptop doesn't start at all now?

I think it is worth giving something like this a try. I've had good luck on cables from Ebay and for $7 worth a shot. Just be aware that the drive is probably dead but for a few dollars why not give it a go. I scrolled through some feedback and no quality complaints on that item in the last month.

[dyamond]

Originally Posted by sach2

So the laptop doesn't start at all now?

Nope I tell you if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have none at all.

I looked online and saw a bunch of people had the same problem with a broken battery holder, especially with Dell's and every one of them said they were able to fix it with things like tape, glue, paper clips, etc. That sounds kinda crazy to me but hey if it works, it works and I figured, considering it's nothing but a paperweight now, what do I have to lose by trying to fix it? Not sure which method I will try yet..

Originally Posted by sach2

I think it is worth giving something like this a try. I've had good luck on cables from Ebay and for $7 worth a shot. Just be aware that the drive is probably dead but for a few dollars why not give it a go. I scrolled through some feedback and no quality complaints on that item in the last month.

I was talking to my IT coworker and he recommended this as a good one, it has pretty good reviews too. I purchased it and should be getting it soon. It's different from the one you suggested. Will it do the same thing? I know this is a long shot at recovery but a girl can hope, you know?

[sach2]

That enclosure looks fine. I didn't realize they were less than $10, I thought they ran a bit higher. Good to know.

I know laptops are rather flimsily made and a pain to disassemble. I can see how things like the broken battery holder can happen. I'm surprised that no disc battery causes a completely inopperable computer. They are there only to save CMOS settings during times the computer is unplugged and without main battery. I would have thought it would still work. I'm not good at attaching things back to the motherboard so I can't give any real advice on the best method. I think I would save glue for last since it is the most difficult to undo. If you can get it up and running by holding the pieces in place or with tape or paper clip then glue might be a more permanent option once you know the connection can be made and it works.

Keep us posted!

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

Ha hah dyamond, the Dell Duck Tape Queen!!

[dyamond]

Haha! I fixed it but I didn't use duct tape I used just the tiniest bit of crazy glue to glue the plastic pieces back together and when I did that, I got the battery to stay in the holder. It was a little more challenging to make sure that the metal pins were touching the metal on the motherboard but I did it and with just a tiny bit more of crazy glue on the back of the plastic holder, I got it to stick to the motherboard. It now works again! well, the laptop, I'm still waiting for the USB enclosure to see if I can hopefully pull things off the hard drive. *fingers crossed*

[sach2]

Fantastic!

My mind blanks on those battery connections. Looking at your picture it would take me twenty tries to get that piece of metal in the proper position in the holder. And the motherboard connection is the trickiest.

Well done. I'm impressed!

[dyamond]

Awww, thanks! (I've noticed I'm slightly more handy when it comes to the physical aspects of troubleshooting then the software ones, kind of a dunce at those )

Sooo, I got the hard drive enclosed and......... nothing the light comes on but it does not spin and it's not recognized by the lappy. I didn't think it would work but I kinda hope it would have. I just don't understand how it could have gotten so damaged (from what I don't know) that none of the usual methods work. I mean, you'd think this thing was struck by lightening or dropped in a toilet or something not just goofing off in internet land.

Oh well, I tried. Thanks a bunch for your help!

[sach2]

I haven't heard of this one before but it might make you feel better. I've bolded the important part since you probably feel like throwing it against the wall.

Other than power supply problems, stiction (static friction) is the usual cause of a hard drive's failure to spin. The drive heads become stuck to the platter and the motor can't overcome the sticking force.

To fix this problem, the platters must be rotated with enough force to free the heads. Twisting the drive violently in the same horizonal plane as the heads will usually free them. The inertia of the heavy platters tends to keep them from moving while the heads are moved around them.
~~
Could you explain How to "twist the drive violently in the same horzional plane as the heads" . Do you just spin the drive in the air?

Hold the drive as if it were a frisbee and then simulate throwing it like a frisbee (but don't let go of the drive and don't let it hit anything).

[dyamond]

So I tried that suggestion and I guess I either didn't have as good of grip on it as I thought or perhaps I flicked my wrist too hard because the next thing I know, the drive slipped out of my hand, sailed across the room and bounced off the dresser. Ooops

If it wasn't really broken before, I'm sure it is now.

[sach2]

I knew I shouldn't have bolded "violently".

Who was it that said "There are no accidents." Meaning the subconscious always knows what it is doing.

[dyamond]

Nah, it’s not your fault. I probably should have used my left hand (even though I’m right handed) because since I had surgery on my right hand, my grip strength has been substantially weakened. I always seem to forget that until I drop something.

I send a complaint over to Seagate, not because I expect them to do anything, but to let them know about the craptasticity of their product. Well, that particular drive exactly. I looked it up and it seems like there are a good amount of people who had the same exact problem I did of it just “dying” for no reason, just a few short months after purchasing it or a laptop that contained it (I did leave out the part about me tossing it like a Frisbee into my dresser, I didn’t think it was really relevant to the situation ).

[plodr]

the craptasticity of their product

I'll have to remember that phrase since it can apply to so many things these days.