please help with hard drive

[sarahloggin]

Hello, I have a major problem with my laptop and am hoping that someone can help me. Please bear with me because I know as much about laptops/computers as my grandmother and basically have no understanding of computer jargons.

This laptop is HP Pavilion ZX5000 and a few weeks ago, I could hear this really loud screeching noise coming from the bottom of the laptop, then it eventually crashed. It seemed like it was coming from my dvd/cd drive and I took it to a friend of mine who’s pretty knowledgeable with computers.

Anyway, it turns out, or he thinks, the hard drive crashed for some reason. He tried to run a diagnostic test through what’s called BIOS but to no avail and he says it’s not recognizing the hard drive.

So here is where it stands right now. Every time I turn it on, I can clearly hear some grinding noise from my hard drive. I have taken out the hard drive and while it seems like there may be a loose part, but it could be a little part that goes up and down (not sure what that’s called) and I wouldn’t even be able to know what’s wrong with it anyway.

And the screen that I get reads as follows:
For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media Test failure, check cable
PEX-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.

This screen repeats itself over and over.

As I said, my friend tried to go into BIOS and somehow got into a screen that reads HDD Self-Test but he said he can’t run it as it reads, Test Status: NO IDE Device.

Does anybody know what’s going on with my laptop? It’s somewhat understandable as I’ve had it for a couple of years now, but really can’t afford to buy a new one either.

He says that one option is to buy a new hard drive and I found some on various sites for sale and the refurbished or used ones are not too expensive. Is that the solution? If I buy the same model and just place it back in my laptop, would that do the trick?

I would appreciate anyone’s help on this matter. Thank you in advance.

Sarah

By the way the hard drive is TOSHIBA 80GB MK8025GAS

 

[ski]

Your friend is correct, the HD is toast.
You should be able to replace it with an identical make and model, but it will have to be partitioned and formatted, and the O/S, all applications, Windows updates, etc., installed. Your friend may be able to help you with those.

 

[wahnula]

OK, how valuable is the data on the drive? If you stop shaking it and cradle it off to a recovery service they might be able to recover the data. I know not of their prices but I would think around $500 minimum.

This is a good opportunity to get word out to the middle-level users like yourself (and everybody here was once, whether they like to admit it or not) to have the pro IT mindset that it is not IF bit WHEN a hard drive will fail and always have a current backup plan.

I recommend a double-the-capacity-of-the-original USB backup drive, either 2.5 or 3.5" in a portable case, and a good backup application (program) called SyncBackSE:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html

If you pay the $24 for ownership it will automate the backups daily for you. Another good free one is BackupGenie. Good luck and spread the word...BACKUP!!!

BTW You might be eligible for a free replacement drive if you check the serial# online it will tell you how long your drive's warrantty was/is. Worth a shot.

Tony

 

[G0AOZ]

Yup, sounds like your disk drive has gone to hardware heaven I'm afraid...

More bad news - you will have lost any data not previously backed up. Unfortunately there's no way it can be retrieved now.

I'd go for a new disk rather than a refurbished - you'll undoubtedly get a far better warranty.

Good luck.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[sarahloggin]

Hi thanks for all the help.
I've done some search in combination with your input and I guess what I need is a replacement (and I'll try to get a brand new one instead of a refurbished or used) which has to be 2.5 form factor.
I'm still stuck on whether or not to get a 40GB, 60, or 80.
My question is does it make a difference whether it's 4200 RPM which is what I had versus a 5200RPM? And does it make a difference whether it's a 2MB which is what I had versus a 8MB?
And does it matter that I burn dvds on this laptop? Does the lower numbers (4200RPM and 2MB) slow down the process or have any affect on the quality?

 

[wahnula]

does it make a difference whether it's 4200 RPM which is what I had versus a 5200RPM

Faster is, well, faster but the faster the drive spins the less the battery life. In my laptops I always run a 7200 rpm Hitachi Travelstar, but I do not spend long hours away from an outlet. You should not see too much difference between 4200 & 5200 in terms of battery life.

I'm still stuck on whether or not to get a 40GB, 60, or 80.

MORE!!! You cannot have too much storage! I like this drive for an economy choice:

http://www.directron.com/mk8032gax.html

does it make a difference whether it's a 2MB which is what I had versus a 8MB

That number refers to 'cache' which is like a form of temporary memory. Again the more the better, you will not have any compatibility issues. A larger number here is better and increases overall machine speed in day-to-day stuff.

And does it matter that I burn dvds on this laptop? Does the lower numbers (4200RPM and 2MB) slow down the process or have any affect on the quality?

Affect quality, no. Affect your patience, yes. DVD recoding is hard-drive intensive so I would get the best (and biggest) drive that I could afford. Of course new, not refurb. Good luck and post back with your decision.

Since you say you do a lot of DVD burning, make one or two of those DVDs regular backups of your user profile in Documents and Settings.

Tony

 

[mainegeek]

saraloggin,
I would recommend replacing the hard drive with another 80 gig. Your dead drive may also have a plastic adapter on it that you will need to remove and put on the replacement drive. So hang onto the older drive as this plastic adapter (if yours has one) is a mfg. part and can cost you another $25 if you loose it. You may have problems with a larger drive, depending on the age of your laptop. If you require more than 80gig then you may consider adding an external drive down the road. If you have a CD/DVD burner then you may want to consider ghosting occasionaly or at least making backups of the data that you have created. If you have the Toshiba Restore CD's for your Laptop then you can use them to prep your new hards drive and put your laptop back to the original condition as it was when you purchased it. If you don't have them you can probably purchase them from Toshiba.

 

[sarahloggin]

Thanks, I pretty much understand what I need.
I do have another question about ATA.
Someone said I have to get a ATA-6 which is my dead hard drive.
But I see a bunch on line with differenat ATA numbers, such as ATA-7 or ATA-133.
On the HP product search website, it says my part is Ultra ATA/100 EIDE hard drive and I'm not sure what ATA I need.

 

[mainegeek]

Sorry....I re-read your post...I thought your laptop was a Toshiba as well as the drive. Disregard the last part of my reply inref to the Toshiba Restore CD's.

 

[ski]

ATA-6 is ATA/100.

http://www.computerhope.com/help/ide.htm#02

 

[sarahloggin]

1. I’m pretty much set on what I will get but the question is which manufacturer makes the best hard drive or how has the reputation of making a good one. The following link has the list of hard drives I’ll probably end up purchasing. Except the top one, they all pretty much have identical features. They are 8MB, 5200 RPM, and 60 GB. I guess out of these manufacturers, which one you would recommend (Hitachi, Samsung, Toshiba, Seagate, and Western Digital).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...5507777+1309721213&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=380

2. It seems like they all come with a 3 year manufacturer warranty but they also have another set of one year or two years service net replacement plan. Do you guys have any idea what the difference between the two warranties? (the 3 year manufacturer and the service net replacement plan). I can’t distinguish the difference between the two. And do you guys usually get these warranties?