[sf_331]

All of a sudden, my laptop stopped recognizing my hard drive. I usually thought harddrive crashes took a while, but apparently after looking at the BIOS, trying to reinstall windows (not being able to because of "no hard drive"), I realized that if my hard drive is bad, it happened overnight.. All the computer does is reboot reboot and reboot after turning it on.

Could it be a motherboard problem or more likely a bad hard drive. If it is a bad harddrive, is there a way to recover files on it, before it is replaced even though the computer wont recognize it.

 

[Scorpion]

Well, the HS may not have failed, even though you can't reinstall the O/S. Have you checked the BIOS to see if it is seen in there?

Have you opened the cover to remove and reseat the HD...it might just be loose. That is the first thing I would try if it is not detected by the BIOS. If it IS detected in the bios, then we'll try other things.

Let us know, along with make/model of lappy, and what version of windows you are trying to install.

Scorp.

 

[sf_331]

Its an HP Pavilion ze4900 .. I tried reinstalling Windows XP SP2.. Its not in the Bios. I have a question about opening it up. Im not sure if it still has a 3 year warranty with BestBuy. Would opening it up void the warranty? Would it be obvious that it was opened?

 

[Scorpion]

Yes, it might void it. Check for warranty first.....if it's still covered, get it back to them before doing anything else.

Scorp.

 

[sf_331]

No Longer has Warranty..
It gives me a Check media Cable error.

The Fan is No Longer Working and I cant hear the Hard Drive either. I took the harddrive out and put it in an external box and connected it to another laptop and it didnt act. Maybe i did it incorrectly.

I then turned on teh CPU and tried to recover what I could using Windows Ultimate Boot CD. I was gonna run a HD Scan but the Computer smelled like Smoke because it was overheating.

What Are the Chances that the Fan is what is not letting the computer boot? Or Could it be that the Hard Drive and Fan both dont work at the same time.