Hard drive hell 1

[guitarzan]

A coworker has a Dell 1545 that they said took a small drop off a couch (though no obvious damage), and the laptop stopped functioning ever since. I took it... never got past Windows logo, safe mode didn't work either. I was finally able to get the files copied off using Safe Mode with command prompt.

I ran hard drive diagnostics (SeaTools), and it said the drive (250GB Seagate drive, 2.5" SATA) was bad. So, I replaced it with an old WD 250GB drive I had on hand, just to see if I could get Windows to load, and see if there were other problems. Well, I was able to get Windows to load, all seemed OK, but soon after Vista started warning me that the drive was about to die. I booted an Ultimate Boot CD on a thumbdrive and ran Data Lifeguard... it found numerous errors on that drive... which is entirely possible, as I said it was an old drive and I was just seeing what would happen. But, the laptop is fully functional with this bad drive (other than failure apparently being imminent)

So I ordered a new WD 500GB drive. ran UBCD WD Data Lifeguard, drive is not recognized. Go to BIOS, drive is not recognized. Put the 250GB drive back in, works fine. Sent 500GB drive back, got another 500GB drive... same issue, not recognized. Put 250GB drive back in again, and AGAIN it's fine.

Any opinions on what would cause that behavior, what I should try next?

 

[kjv1611]

To me it sounds like you're just in a bad luck spiral with this one. It's entirely possible for a manufacturer to send you 2 bad drives - nor normal, but possible.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[guitarzan]

Thanks for the reply. Yes possible, but seems very unlikely. I guess I need to locate a drive enclosure that I can put this drive into, see if it works there or not .

Also, I just updated the BIOS from A07 to A14, same behavior

 

[kjv1611]

Another method would be to connect to a different computer for the testing, rather than the laptop. So if no issues at another computer, but issues at the laptop, maybe the seemingly benign drop messed up more than the hard drive.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[kjv1611]

One more thought to be sure. Are you just testing the new hard drives w/o any data first, or are you copying all data back and then testing? I initially was thinking that could be the issue with your spare drive before the new drive issues, thinking that maybe the issues were just Windows Management seeing the bad history, and still reporting on it. If that were the case, you could use CCleaner or another cleaning app to clean out the event logs, or you could manually go to them and clean them out.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[guitarzan]

I agree... I need to put this new drive in another machine, should have done that before.

And no, the 250GB drive that "worked" has only a fresh OS load done from the Dell DVD, and driver updates from Dell's support site. No data copied back. The very new drives (500GB) have zero data, because I can't get them to be recognized.

I will report back what I find after plugging the drive into another machine / enclosure.

 

[guitarzan]

OK, located a drive enclosure, plugged the new 500GB WD drive in to my Win 7 box, I was able to format the drive, copy files to and from it, etc. Put it back in the laptop, BIOS cannot see it.

Then just for the heck of it, I plugged the 250GB drive into the enclosure and into my Win 7 machine, ran Data Lifeguard for Windows, Quick test... and it passed.

So I guess it's some other hardware-related issue on the laptop. Oh well.

 

[FredWagner]

could it be that the bios in the laptop just can't handle a driver bigger than 250GB ?

Fred Wagner
(retired, but still involved!)

 

[guitarzan]

As far as I know it can handle 500GB. I know there are Inspiron 1545s that ship with 500GB drives and I haven't come across a machine that can take a 250GB drive but not a 500GB drive.

 

[mscallisto]

I found this which may help:

To confirm the hardware functionality, I would request you to run the Pre-Boot System Assessment (PSA / ePSA) Diagnostics, see:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19528123

You'll also see a link to a video that shows how to perform the test

 

[spamjim]

The specs on this laptop make it slightly better than a netbook. I would not be surprised if 500GB drives scare it.

 

[guitarzan]

Hmmmm interesting, thanks for the replies. I will try that link this weekend.

 

[guitarzan]

... and it seems the OP of the thread in your link, mscallisto, was using the exact same system AND hard drive as me...

 

[guitarzan]

I ended up finding a smaller drive that worked, and I was also able to use the 500GB drive in a different laptop, so while I never had a chance to try the PSA diagnostics, seems clear that Fred was right, this machine cannot handle a 500GB drive. Thanks for the replies.