HP Pavilion
166Mhz Pentium
32Mb memory
Windows 95
2.3 Gb hard drive (Western Digital Caviar 22500)
A few weeks ago, it stopped booting up. The hard drive would make odd noises and a “insert bootable media in the appropriate drive” message would come. I got the recovery disc and tried to boot up again. I got the HP recovery screen, but got a “error: diagnostics” dialog box with “ok” as the only option, then it would return to the A: drive. At the prompt, I would type in “C:” and got an “invalid drive specification” message.
I went to bootdisk.com and created a startup disk but it didn’t help. I was able to access the CD-ROM drive but got the same message about the hard drive. I went through the BIOS setup screen and it showed that the hard drive was not there. I manually inputted the specs and rebooted, but to no avail.
Is there a way to extract any info from this drive (nothing important, really) or should I just grab a screwdriver and have a good time tearing into it?
Being the semi-computer geek that I am, I hate to ditch this computer. I could buy a cheapo drive to put in it and donate it to a charity, but that would probably not be financially sound.
You can try freezing the hard drive. You take it out and put it in a freezer for a half-hour or so, then try connecting it up as a slave to another PC. Have a plan for what you want to save however because you may have <60 seconds to do it each time you “freeze”, if it wirks at all.
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I was hoping for a much cheaper (read: free) way. It’s not a big deal, really. I just hate to have to trash the thing. Still, I am looking forward to cracking the drive open.
Some simple things to try: Unhook all the cables to the hard drive (at both ends), plug them back in. Check also that the jumpers are set right. (A lot of computer problems are caused by people changing things and then denying they did anything. Assume someone did something anyway.) Treat it as if you were installing the HD for the first time.
I have “manually agitated” a HD that wouldn’t spin up to get it to work long enough to recover data. But that’s only for us pros. We know where to whack with a hammer. (It really does have to be the right way.)
If the BIOS is not seeing the drive, it is probably an electrical problem and the freezer trick and such won’t work.
Another thing I’ve heard that sometimes works is to find a drive with the identical controller electronics, and switch out the bad drive controller on your dead hd. Of course, this will only work if the problem is with the drive controller, and will obviously void any kind of warranty.
The BIOS sees the controller, but not the drive. All the speciafications show “0”.
I went to Ebay and found a similar, but used drive (guaranteed to not be DOA) for $17 (incl shipping). I went ahead and bought it. If it works, I’m going to restore it and donate it to Mrs. Blue Sky’s school.
I’ve successfully frozen and smacked hard drives back into life temporarily. The main thing is if the spindle motor still spins or not. You can also put the hard drive on a flat surface and twist it horizontally in a fast motion several times. If a HD hasn’t been spun up in a while the head can “stick” to the platter.
If all else fails, do what I do: take it apart, scratch the platter up with a screwdriver and generally just mangle the shit out of the electronics. Make sure to take any “Void Warranty” stickers and place them directly on the platter. Reassemble the drive inside-out (making new screw holes if needed) and mount it on a wall where your computer can see it. It acts as a scarecrow to all the other components in your PC and you are guaranteed to go a month or so without hardware problems before they forget your warning.
The magnets that the head floats in between make very, very strong refrigerator magnets.
I’ve had an “ancient” 8088-based computer sitting under my bed for over 10 years now. I decided to crack it open and get to the 10Mb hard drive. No, that wasn’t a misprint. The massive hard drive is just 10Mb!
After about 15 minutes, I was able to get the platters out. There’s two of them. Each is 5.125" in diameter and twice as thick as a compact disc. The platers are wider than the entire case of the aformentioned WD drive and weigh just as much.
I am amazed at how far this technology has come in the past 15 years.
I also heard about freezing a hard drive to get it to temporarily to work.The big thing is to freeze it in a baggie and then to let it come to room temp, while still in the baggie. This will help with condensation . From what I heard, this will only work if the hard drive died due to heat related issues.
My experience is that if neither the disk spins up nor the heads move, the BIOS still gets the CHS info from the drive electronics. So I really suspect it’s an electronics problem and swapping out the PCB might work. Note that plasic ribbon connectors are used and these are easily damaged. Also funny Torx-type screws or some such might be involved as well. Heat (sometimes abetted by dust) causes these types of problems. Make sure there is nice airspace and, even better, airflow above and below the drive.
