Re: Media test failure

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:43:00 -0800, Lou wrote:

Thanks Sharon.
I am past the warrenty date I am sure as i bought the laptop in 2003.
Question. If it is a failing hard drive is there a way to save the files on
the hard drive?

Too bad about the warranty date. You may want to google the term "PXE E61
Media test failure." This is a message from either the BIOS or from Compaq
tools. You may find more information about what exactly this failure is.
I'm looking at a few hits here that point to an incorrect setting in BIOS
for the preferred boot device. If changing a setting is all that is needed,
you won't have to worry about a possible hard drive failure.

If it still looks like a failing hard drive, there are special cables that
you can buy that will connect a laptop drive to a regular PC. The hard
drive gets removed from the laptop. Then one end of the cable is attached
to the laptop drive and the other end is plugged into one of the ATA
connectors on a desktop PC. If you're lucky there will be enough "life"
left in the drive that the desktop PC can be used to save the files on the
laptop drive. NOTE: Laptop/ATA cables come in a variety of flavors. Which
one is needed depends on the number of "pins" that is needed on the end
that will connect to the laptop hard drive.

While the above is not too difficult as a "DIY" job, you might consider
consulting with a local repair shop. If you are in an area where you have
good PC repair shops to choose from, they would have equipment on hand (a
large selection of cables) to do this job for you.

If the drive is bad off then you still have "data recovery" services that
could help. These tend to be a bit of expensive so get quotes first. Then
you'll need to make a personal decision - are the files worth the cost of
recovery.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
.

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