NTLDR Missing after Drive Switch 2

[blacksteve]

My Friends Acer portable (running XP) has developed a hardware fault (overheating) and I am trying to get the unsaved information off the drive.
I have an IBM R31 (running XP Pro)and on opening up both portables I discovered thay both are running 80GB Travelmate Drives - though the Acer drive is IBM Badged, and the IBM has an Hitachi. Both have no jumpers set.
If I put the IBM Drive (from the Acer) into the R31 I get NTLDR is missing - press any key to restart..

How can I stop this ?
Can I boot up from a floppy and copy this file over to the IBM Drive?
Is it something to do with IBM's recovery boot option ?
Will the IBM drive ever work in the R31 without reformatting ?

Steve Hawker - Blackcap Computing Ltd

Is the square root of 69 eight something ? >

 

[IONSystems]

If you are trying to recover the data from the supposdly bad system, I would put it in a USB enclosure and mirror it to another drive for safe keeping, or pull off any important documents etc. I know with Windows 2000, drives cannot be booted in another system - the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) will not let you boot with a different motherboard chipset, as a security feature. I don't remember if this is the case for XP as well. I would get one of these USB enclosures, and fire up the drive on another system to recover as much data as possible, and run diagnostics on the drive to ensure it is in good working condition before you try and reformat it and put it back in it's original IBM system.

Chris Biggers

http://www.ionsystems.net

ION Systems, Computer Sales and Service
Data Destruction services now!

 

[wolluf]

You can get an adapter which will let you connect the drive to a PC - where you can easily recover the files.

Moving drives with o/s from one machine to another can work - but often doesn't (its not a security feature - just a matter of drivers. Sometimes windows sorts it all out and loads appropriate new ones, sometimes it can't). If its the data you're after, I would definitely connect the drive elsewhere to do your retrieval.

 

[blacksteve]

Chris & Wolluf

What is a USB enclosure, and why could I read the disk using one of these?
Are you saying that because it doesn't boot, it should be brought up as a secondary or slave and read as another drive on one of my other PC's..

Thanks for taking the time and effort to reply

Steve Hawker - Blackcap Computing Ltd

Is the square root of 69 eight something ? >

 

[IONSystems]

Question: What is a USB enclosure, and why could I read the disk using one of these?

Answer: Something like this

http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10501045

is what you are looking for. This device allows you to plug in any notebook hard drive in to this device, and connect it up to a USB port on another system (desktop, laptop, whatever). It then acts as another hard drive, and you can recover any file off it you want, mirror the entire drive, format it, do diagnostics, etc. I have tons of these on my workbench and I use them all the time, they are a lifesaver.

Question: Are you saying that because it doesn't boot, it should be brought up as a secondary or slave and read as another drive on one of my other PC's..

Answer: Exactly. Check out the drive in another system to determine if the drive itself is faulty, and the data is corrupt, or if it simply has a corrupt operating system. The most important thing is you could back up any important documents or accounting data etc before total failure.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you need any more help, this is what I do for a living.

Chris Biggers

http://www.ionsystems.net

ION Systems, Computer Sales and Service
Data Destruction services now!

 

[blacksteve]

Brilliant
I will get one - I might even get two..
I'll report back when I have sourced one and tried it out..

Thanks Chris

Steve Hawker - Blackcap Computing Ltd

Is the square root of 69 eight something ? >

 

[wolluf]

Chris - that looks like a nifty little device (bit more convenient than the IDE adaptor).

 

[blacksteve]

Wolluf & Chris
I bought a Belkin USB enclosure which arrived Monday (a bit more expensive in the UK ! £60.00 ) Realised then that I needed an adapter to put the 2.5" drive into the Ide connector and power supply. Ordered that and it arrived yesterday. (So you were right too wolluf)
Then....
Brilliant ! All the information on the drive was available and rather than try to decide what the client wanted, I gave her the enclosure with the old disk in it, and plugged it into her new portable. She can now take whatever she needs off the old disk.

What a result.. I now have the ability to be ready next time something like this happens.

Well done and Thanks !

Steve Hawker - Blackcap Computing Ltd

Is the square root of 69 eight something ? >

 

[etiger]

From the start of your heating problem just my thoughts.
1. did you check/clean the heat outlet?
2. is the laptop used on a table cloth or someting which migth block the ventilation?

Most of the time people don't care about their computer. It should work all the time, some attention should be paid to how to handle the machine. (You really don't want to know what the inside of a laptop or PC powersupply looks likes after some time. they are suckers for dust...

 

[blacksteve]

Etiger..
1. did you check/clean the heat outlet? Yes - There was a lump of dust but nothing blocking.
2. is the laptop used on a table cloth or someting which migth block the ventilation? Yes - it was being used on a bed.. The new machine is now being used on a breakfast tray..

Its the probable damage done to the mother board I was after, whether a super heated solder joint which now works until warm.. or something like that. To send it away for a motherboard replace would be about £125.00 (sterling), and I am not sure whether its worth it. The CD drive was torn out by a young child.. poor computer ! Some machines have such unhappy lives.


Steve Hawker - Blackcap Computing Ltd

Is the square root of 69 eight something ? >