Re: Did My Computer Crash?

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Thank you so much for your help and advice Shenan. I will try to find someone
and get it checked.

Again, thank you.

"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

Islander wrote:
I own a Dell Inspiron 8600. 2 weeks ago my wife was using it and
she says in froze and then turned off. Now when I turn it on It
starts booting and then it beeps and gives me this message;

"Primary hard disk drive 0 not found

No bootable devices -- strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup
utility"

Any ideas of what happened or what I should do guys or gals?

Shenan Stanley wrote:
If your computer hardware is telling you:
"Primary hard disk drive 0 not found"

The first thing to do is check the BIOS - see if it just lost its settings
and perhaps you don't have a hard disk crash.

Next thing is to open the computer case (unplugged from all power and
such)
and with canned air - dust it out and then check all cable/etc
connections -
make sure they are connected solidly.

Then check the BIOS again - if you still cannot find a hard disk drive -
it
is entirely possibly this computers hard disk drive has crashed and died
on
you.

If that is so - hook your backup medium (external hard disk drive, CD,
DVD,
thumb drive, tape drive, etc.) to another machine and see how much you
might
need to recover (should just be stuff created/changed since your last good
backup) so you know what to look for if you put this hard disk drive into
an
external case or try some other method to get data off it.

Expect to replace the hard disk drive if it cannot befound by the computer
after doing the cleanup/cable check and looking in the BIOS. Even if it
does come back - consider it toast and backup everything immediately -
download the hard disk drive manufacturer's disk diagnostics utility and
run
a full scan on the drive...

Islander wrote:
Excuse my ignorance but what is BIOS and how do I check it?

Shenan Stanley wrote:
See Richard's response.

You have a Dell - so turning off the computer, turn ing it on and
starting to tap the F2 key slowly (once per second) right after you
turn on the power should get you into the "System Setup" or "BIOS"
- but if you don't know what you are looking for - you may already
be better off taking it to some small computer shop (key: SMALL)
and letting them look at it. Otherwise you'll walk out of a big
store with a brand new computer and nothing else. heh

Islander wrote:
Thank you Shenan,

I pressed the F2 key and it gives me a black and blue screen with
what seems to be all computer info such as speed memory etc... One
of those says Primary Hard Drive: None

MAP wrote:
Next open the computer up and check for good connections mainly between
the
hard drive and motherboard.

Islander wrote:
I forgat to mention It's a laptop, does this matter? Or is the
procedure the same?

With it being a laptop (sorry - somehow I missed seeing it in the first
place - Inspiron 8600) - I believe you have already gone beyond your comfort
level.

Opening the case is not something I would take lightly on a laptop -
although the removal of the hard disk drive should not be difficult (likely
one or two screws and a removal of the proper compartment/compartment door
followed by the possible removal of one or two more screws) - being a
laptop, the probability that it is a loose connection vs. a dead hard disk
drive/controller is slim - in other words - the hardware has likely failed -
as that laptop is no 'spring chicken'.

My suggestion is to take it to someone you trust and see if they can connect
the drive to some external device and get anything off it. Otherwise - you
will either have to replace the hard disk drive and/or the whole laptop.
(Some might tell you that you could replace the mainboard if that turns out
to be the trouble - but I say, knowing that laptop and having seen at least
three dead in the past 6 months of the same model - it's not worth the
cost/time/trouble.)

Hopefully - at this point - you can rely on backups for the data that was on
the laptop.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



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