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Question

hard disk drive failure, cannot boot?

Jul 15, 2015 9:36PM PDT

I had to clean my system last night and when I was done cleaning up and I tried to boot and got a message “Hard disk drive failure”. Now it won’t boot. So what when wrong?

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Re: hard drive failure
Jul 16, 2015 12:14AM PDT

What exactly was "cleaning"? Using a dishwasher, for example, isn't a good idea.

But even if nothing went wrong with cleaning, it's possible the failure just happened, unrelated to what you did. I'd start with (a) booting from a Linux disk and see what that says about the drive, or (b) get the drive out, put it in an external enclosure and see what another Windows PC says.

You might need a new drive if it failed in such a way it can't be repartitioned. But maybe you just meant "I cleaned the inside with canned air and accidentally I damaged the motherboard" or something like that. Then the solution is different.

Kees

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Answer
Answer
Jul 16, 2015 4:14AM PDT

Hi there.

Can you see your hard drive in BIOS? If not, then you can try the basic troubleshooting steps:

1. Try a different SATA cable and plug the HDD in a different SATA port of the motherboard.
2. In case it is not recognized yet try to plug it in a different computer - that is the best way to see if the problem is with the drive, or with the motherboard of the computer.

If the drive appears, you may try to extract your most valuables data via the OS, or if it doesn't appear in your computer you can give Linux Live CD a shot. Just download/burn the ISO image to a CD or USB and change the boot order to the media you burned the Linux on. Once it loads, you could try and mount the drive (or if Linux can read it, it will mount by itself) and see if you can transfer the files from the external.

However, if the HDD doesn't show up, then it will be best to consult with a data recovery company in order to extract any valuable information you have stored there. Here's a link you can check out with few companies:

http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Pb0J9C

Hope this helps and feel free to ask any additional questions you may have.

Cheers! Happy

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Answer
Let's hope for the simple issue.
Jul 16, 2015 8:14AM PDT

Get back inside the desktop PC and check that the HDD power and data cables are connected. Give them a slight push home. Now follow that cable to the PSU and Motherboard and if on a connection, give that end a slight push home.

Now someone did that with the power applied to the PC which was fatal. Must I always tell folk to do this with power removed?

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Answer
hard disk drive failure, cannot boot?
Jul 16, 2015 9:36PM PDT

Check if you have plugged the hdd properly. You must have bumped it while cleaning