Computer Problem for RSFCking Gurus
- From: Jim Gysin <jimgysin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:08:24 GMT
The hard drive on my primary (newer) Dell laptop appears to be taking a
page from John Rogers's book by crapping out a bit. Okay, more than a
bit, and I'm limited to my older, non-wi-fi laptop at the moment. The
problem presents as a nonresponsive keyboard when booting up; I can't
enter my admin password because the keyboard doesn't respond, so Windows
can't load and I'm stuck. And while I'm fluent enough to come up with a
dozen workarounds to save as much from a dying hard drive as possible if
I can get the machine to listen to me, I'm at a loss when the machine
won't accept any input.
I booted into safe mode and was also unable to do anything via keyboard.
I booted into safe mode with DOS prompt and was also unable to do anything.
BIOS settings appear to be fine and uncorrupted.
Running Dell diagnostics at bootup shows problems in the "Verify Test"
and "Seek Test" areas. The former shows 30 blocks that kick up the
error message: "Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected."
The latter shows one block that gives the error message: "Illegal
request - possible use of incorrectg media." At that point, the test
loops and I am unable to do anything other than abort. I'm guessing
that those blocks contain critical driver information.
The machine is well past its one-year warranty. I am pretty good about
making backups, but if anyone knows of any workarounds to the above
problems so that I can at least boot up and save even the minor data on
the drive, I would appreciate hearing from you. Also, if I get a new
drive for it, how difficult would it be to then pull data off of the old
drive once it's removed from the machine? I was hoping to be able to
use a Laplink USB male-male cable to treat the drive like an external
hard drive (like the WD Passport drive and memory keys that I use) even
before I did anything else, but it won't fly, even though I can launch
MediaDirect and see photos and photo directories on the drive, so I know
that the drive is not entirely shot. I stopped by Best Buy and saw some
USB male-female cables and some USB-A or some such thing cables, but the
staff (on a Sunday, no less) was more clueless than I was.
My next step will be to contact Dell (no free phone or email support
these days for machines out of warranty, apparently) and decide whether
to just replace the drive or whether it's a good time to upgrade
entirely. But until then, I'd love to be able to pull everything
possible off of that drive. Any suggestions?
--
Jim Gysin
Waukesha, WI
.
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