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Question

Boot and Recovery Problems

by Oct 10, 2015 9:31PM PDT

Hello all,


Today I dropped my Samsung NP470R5E pretty harshly and now it will not boot. I'm not a computer person but I did some searching and found a few suggestions. I tried unplugging the hard drive as well as what I believe to be the ram. I also altered the BIOS setting to disable safe boot. Neither of these things did anything. I am also unable to use the Samsung Recovery tool. It takes forever to load and once it does says something about the C drive cannot remember exactly. My guess is that the hard drive is damaged/broken but It is sill being recognized in the BIOS menu. When trying to start without hard drive pretty much nothing happened. I had been running Windows 10 though the laptop came with 8. Really at a loss and I need this laptop for school. Right now just an electric paper weight.

Any and all suggestions appreciated

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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Answer
Re: dropped
by Forum moderator Oct 11, 2015 12:54AM PDT

You post is contradictionary.
First you say it does not boot. Then you say that it says something about the c-drive. But that means it did boot.

After removing the hard drive, computers used to give a message about not being able to find a boot device, inviting you to insert a bootable floppy or a bootable CD/DVD. If it does nothing, that's a very bad sign.

My suggestion is to see if it can still boot from an optical disk (that might need an external drive) or a bootable USB-stick with Linux or the Windows 10 setup. Those can be donwloaded and made on another PC. Use Linux to have a look at the drive, use the Windows 10 setup to reinstall Windows 10.

A few notes:
- If the disk is damaged you need a new one.
- The preferred way of reinstalling is to use the recovery disks you made for Windows 8, and then upgrade to Windows 10 again (via Windows update or from the install media you made while testing). If you didn't make those recovery disks, see if you can order them with Samsung.
- An alternative is a clean install of Windows 10 on the new disk, but then you need to download all drivers and such from the samsung site and install them in the right sequence.
- It's not guaranteed at all that replacing the disk will be enough, but it's a good starting point.
- It easier (but more expensive) to have all this done by a repair shop, and it might take more time.

Finally, you don't need this laptop for school, at most you need a laptop for school. Any (temprorary or final) replacement will do, after you installed the software you need for school and restored your school stuff from your backup. Possibly the repair shop will be able to rent you one.
On a new hard disk, of course, you'll need to reinstall that software and restore that stuff also,

Kees

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More questions
by Toastman8 Oct 11, 2015 6:34AM PDT

Kees,


Thank you for the reply. Allow me to try to clarify further.

When I turn on the computer, it shows the Samsung logo before going to a black screen saying all boot options tried press f4 for recovery process. When I try the recovery option it tells me the C drive cannot be found. This is why I think the hard drive is the issue.
I know a new laptop is probably the best option but I would like to keep costs down and downtime low as possible. I don't have any important data on the laptop so I would not be upset to lose it. From what I'm understanding I should first try to boot from a usb (no disk drive on laptop), and if that does not work then replace hard drive and reinstall Windows? Is there a good place I can take the laptop just for them to diagnose what's actually wrong with it? Thanks again

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Re: laptop
by Kees_B Forum moderator Oct 11, 2015 7:18AM PDT

It seems likely it's the disk, but it can be the motherboard also. You might like to see if Samsung or the manufacturer of the disk has a bootable test program. That might be easier and better than using Linux to diagnose the issue.

Generally, the shop where you bought it is a good place to have a look at it or send it to a repair center. But you might have other repair shops in your neighborhood that can have a (probably paid) look.

Kees

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Still trying
by Toastman8 Oct 11, 2015 10:12AM PDT

Okay so I downloaded Windows 10 onto a flash drive. I selected repair this computer when booted from the usb. It allowed me to go to the troubleshoot. Now it is saying that the drive where Windows is located is locked, what do I do?

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There are prior discussions on that error.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Oct 11, 2015 11:21AM PDT

It can be a damaged HDD, motherboard or a drive that needs to be wiped clean. But with the drop, hardware failure is most likely.

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Answer
I'd get estimates on repair.
by Forum moderator Oct 11, 2015 8:55AM PDT

There are laptops good enough for most school work that are less than repair.

Did you happen to take out drop and spill insurance?

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