So I dropped my laptop the other day. And now it won't work. It'll power up, but that's it. It won't load windows (even in safe mode). I have very important data on there that I need to get (if possible). I can't find what type of hard drive connector it uses (IDE, SATA). I was thinking of buying an external 2.5" HDD enclosure and need help deciding which to get.
If anyone knows what type of connector it uses, could you let me know and recommend an adaptor? I was looking at one of these 3:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...rchInDesc=
because they claim both SATA and IDE.
BTW, it's a Compaq Presario V6120US. Thanks in advance.
After a little searching on the net, it looks like this laptop uses a SATA hard drive. You should be able to open the hard drive bay & check for yourself.
When you say it doesn't boot up, does it even show the bios splash screen? Does it do anything? Does the hard drive led come on, & show activity?
It will only power up into the bios, but doesn't load into windows? Being that the bios displays, and works that is a great sign. All your vital components must be working for this to happen. Do you get any errors, or does the computer just hang during windows loading process? I'm thinking the hard-drive might have been damaged when the laptop was dropped. Why are you going to buy an external hard-drive? What you need is an internal to external hard-drive adapter, and a new hard-drive. That's if the drive is actually damaged of course... Try the repair option by inserting the Windows CD, and rebooting.
I think his aim is to use the external adapter to extract important information from the drive before messing with it.
Makes sense to do it that way, if the data is that important.
Hey thanks for the help guys :cheers:
I ended up buying a new SATA HDD, and should be here in a few days. I'm just going to install a fresh copy of Windows XP
Just didn't want to loose all my data, Oh well. . Thats what I get for not doing regular backups
You don't have to loose all your important files. Of course, you will loose all you're installed programs. For now you can install the new hard-drive, and install a fresh copy of windows. See if that works. As I said before though, you really should try the repair option that comes with the windows dos installer. It will not delete any of your files, and saves all your programs too. At least give it a try to see if it works.
Always make backups, I do this about once a month just to be sure lol
Hey guys, the HDD ended up just popping loose. I put it back in and windows loaded up no problem
silly me for not looking.. I'll probably just keep the one I ordered as a spair for any future problems
You could probably return the hard drive and mention that you didn't need it after all. You might be able to get a refund.
I could almost swear That I posted on this topic - must not of hit the post reply button good enough. oh well welcome to the forum footlongsam
I knew it had to be the hard-drive. The chances of dropping it, and that creating bad sectors is a lot lower than the chance of a cable coming slightly loose I guess? Interesting... Well, glad you got it fixed! Stick around on the forum...
(09-11-2009 11:47 PM)footlongsam Wrote: [ -> ]Hey guys, the HDD ended up just popping loose. I put it back in and windows loaded up no problem
silly me for not looking.. I'll probably just keep the one I ordered as a spair for any future problems
Glad you solved your issue, Hope the information provided here was was useful and that you will continue to be a part of are community.
Technofyed Forum Staff