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Changing out laptop hard drive????

Discussion in 'Other Hardware' started by poertner_1274, Oct 11, 2002.

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  1. poertner_1274 secroF laicepS topShceT

    Ok, I just got home tonight to realize that my laptop hard drive is dead. I'm not sure if it is from overheating, or what, but I turned it off and am going to mess with it tomorrow. I am wondering how hard it would be for me personally to replace that hard drive with a new one. And if it is even possible to take that hard drive out and put it in my desktop and see if it is totally dead or what. My thoughts are that it got hacked and someone put a hard drive killer on it, because it has been working fine, without any problems lately. I hate to think this, but until I investigate a little that is the only thing I have been thinking about. Anyway.....If anyone has replaced or exchanged a laptop hard drive before I would like some input about how hard it is. I am very computer literate, and know a lot about them (desktops, never laptops). So this isn't a n00b job :) Or if anyone has any suggestions as to what I can do to check.

    Right now the only thing it wants to do is boot from the network. I enter the bios and my primary master isn't recognized, it says NONE. It is a KDS Valiant laptop. If you need more specs I'll look them up, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with that.
    poertner_1274, Oct 11, 2002
    #1

  2. Th3M1ghtyD8 TechSpot Paladin

    It sure be fairly easy to change the hard drive. It will probably be a 2.5" device, and you should be able to get at it, simply be sliding a panel off the bottom of the laptop.

    As for connecting it to a Desktop, you will need either a 2.5" - 3.5" hard drive adapter or a 2.5" external hd enclosure (USB/Firewire).
    Th3M1ghtyD8, Oct 11, 2002
    #2

  3. poertner_1274 secroF laicepS topShceT

    Thanks, I'll give it a shot when I get home. I am at school now browsing between classes. I hope I get home and it fires right up, otherwise I am going to be pissed. I just got this thing 3 months ago. Oh well.......You win some and you lose some.

    Thanks again.
    poertner_1274, Oct 11, 2002
    #3

  4. young&wild TechSpot Chancellor

    In the past i have seen some laptop manuals contain intructions to carry out HDD replacement. Back in those days, people would buy an extra HDD to run another OS and save more stuff.
    young&wild, Oct 12, 2002
    #4

  5. poertner_1274 secroF laicepS topShceT

    Well I have some good news for everyone........I guess the hard drive and computer just overheated somehow and needed a little rest. Which it got because I didnt' work on it until right now. But it is working now. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong, but I haven't moved it or done anything different than before, but oh well I am so happy that it doens't need to be fixed. \o/
    poertner_1274, Oct 12, 2002
    #5

  6. Vehementi TechSpot Paladin


    3 months? RMA the sucker. It MUST have a warranty, at least one year.

    You could try MrG's freezer trick.

    I haven't heard of an HDD hack that did anything more than a low-level format...
    Vehementi, Oct 12, 2002
    #6

  7. poertner_1274 secroF laicepS topShceT

    I know of some that kill the HD completely, where you can't axs them anymore or get any data off of them. But I'm not going to talk about that here....

    I'm just glad that wasn't the problem, and it is working now

    As far as the RMA goes, I bought it off ebay, and I'm not sure if the guy gave me everything to be able to do that, and I have no idea what his name is anymore.
    poertner_1274, Oct 13, 2002
    #7

  8. Th3M1ghtyD8 TechSpot Paladin

    Have you checked any cooling fans are still working ?
    Th3M1ghtyD8, Oct 14, 2002
    #8

  9. poertner_1274 secroF laicepS topShceT

    I know very minimal about laptop components. So the answer to that question is no. Do I have to take it apart to see if they are working properly?
    poertner_1274, Oct 14, 2002
    #9

  10. Elcarion TechSpot Paladin

    You should be able to hear fan noise either all the time or just when the system starts to get hot. Mine runs all the time but it goes to high speed if the system gets hot.

    You might try the following to help it run cooler:
    1) Looking at the BIOS settings for cooling options
    2) Load Intel Speedstep software(if it's compatible)
    3) Run a CPU cooling utility like Waterfall
    4) Conserve as much power as possible with BIOS/Windows settings (harddrive, LCP, CPU, etc)
    Elcarion, Oct 16, 2002
    #10

  11. sooin2it Newcomer, in training

    I am having problems with my hard drive too.

    I was wondering if can you tell me little more about that virus which can destroy
    you HD. All I want to know is how can I figure out if someone have done it to my laptop or not. Every thing was working a week ago and I have had some isues with the guys from skype.com and now my HD doesn't work. Making a "click" sound almost every second.
    sooin2it, Nov 21, 2004
    #11

  12. StormBringer Newcomer, in training

    no such thing as a virus that can cause mechanical damage to a HDD. If there is, I'd like to see it, as I've been around computers for a very long time and been working on them for over 15 and never seen such a virus.
    StormBringer, Nov 21, 2004
    #12

  13. Mictlantecuhtli TS Special Forces

    Mictlantecuhtli, Nov 21, 2004
    #13

  14. Keleah Newcomer, in training

    I hope it's ok for me to reply to this thread, as I'm only a new member, no tech. In reference to the virus destroying the hard drive, he is correct.
    I have a hp zt1135 running [was] win xp home ed. my desktop [hp 6630 running win 98 se] had already got the ripper, kids and a trojan. macafee rescue disk saved it, but I opened the same mail on the laptop, not relizing it had a virus. a message popped up about having the ripper, kids and the same trojan. I ran the virus scanner, and as it was late, around 2 a.m., I shut the laptop down. from that time on I have never been able to boot up again. It was only 13 months old, one over the warrenty, so they refused to do anything about it.
    first message was please type in comman interperter, didn't know what that was, so I just kept putting in C:\ or dir. got the message retry or press any key to retry hd. nothing worked. I can go into the bios, check the system, and all that stuff. the recovery disks doesn't work, and it's an oem system.
    viruses had to do this, and I haven't been able to do anything with it for over three months now. want to save my data if it's still hidden on the drive. just don't know how to use the caddy or try to transfer, or see if anything is there. thanks for listening, and if anyone has any suggestions, except for me to shut up, I sure would appreciate the input. Keleah --new member
    Keleah, Nov 26, 2004
    #14
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