Help with laptop hard drive (or laptop) replacement

[sneefy]

I've only had one hard drive...where I was unable to cable the drive up to a new pc and recover data.

Hopefully that's the case here. Even if the drive is dying, it's not unusual to be able to grab files from it. But I've seen plenty of drives fail and were unrecoverable. Some making lovely noises in their death throes. When the heads are scraping on the platters it's not going to work, lol.

You're right about HP's consumer lines. Junk. Their Elitebooks are good. The Probooks are ok. I wouldn't waste money on anything else they make.

 

[njpaddy]

Some making lovely noises in their death throes.

Reminds me of our first Gateway pc in 1994. 3 weeks after we got it, it began to sound like a marble rattling inside - a sign of hard drive failure. Good thing it was new and we didn't have anything on it worth losing. It was the best thing that ever happened. Gateway sent a guy out to replace the drive and I watched him thinking, hell I can do that. The tech guy wouldn't reinstall the software, so Gateway had to walk me thru reinstallation of the operating system, drivers and software. By the time I was done, I had a much better understanding of pc hardware and software and even wound up ordering more RAM and cache chips from Gateway to install myself. When a game my wife bought me a few months later kept freezing up, I learned how to upgrade the BIOS to play it. Haven't stopped tinkering since.

 

[sneefy]

The only redeeming part of a Gateway was the whimsical Holstein patterned box. They were almost as bad as an e-machine. Like you, I haven't bought a pre-built desktop in a long time. Though, I don't game much these days so I haven't built a desktop in 10 years. I prefer powerful laptops instead that can run a game on passable settings.

Working on computers isn't hard. It just takes a logical approach and willingness to learn the parts of the system.

 

[john parker]

This is all making me happy that I have a MacBook with Apple Care and iCloud.

 

[sneefy]

Well, there's nothing special about Apple laptops from a hardware perspective. But having it under warranty for peace of mind and backing up data are certainly good things.

 

[Greg24]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. The computer originally came with a WD 1TB hard drive. The one I ordered is a Seagate 2TB FireCuda hybrid drive. I don't do any gaming, but do have lots of pics, and like to keep both Raw and Jpeg files, so storage is more important than speed so I thought the hybrid seemed a good fit.

Microsoft now lets you download windows 10 off their website. You can use it to make a boot disk from a usb drive to install on your new HD once you install it into your machine. Use the key on the sticker (usually underneath your machine to authorize your windows copy). You should be able to download the drivers for your machine without giving HP an extra dime of your money. Get an external enclosure for your old hd for $8 and maybe you can salvage some of your old files if you don’t have backups.

 

[troy]

If the laptop isn't seeing the boot drive at all, (Check if it shows up in the BIOS) It's either the drive or the SATA controller. The drive is self-explanatory. the controller is part of the motherboard.

To test the drive, you can pull the drive and connect it via a USB to another computer. You don't need to try to boot from it for this test, just find out if it's readable. To do this you need either an adapter cable, drive enclosure, or other device that mounts a hard drive as USB storage. There are LOTS of options for this so take your pick.

Some examples...
Cable:

https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-UNITEK-Universal-External-Support/dp/B01NAUIA6G/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=hard+drive+adapter&qid=1572705617&sr=8-3

Toaster-type:

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Duplicator-Function-EC-HD2B/dp/B0759567JT/ref=sxin_2_ac_d_rm?ac_md=1-1-aGFyZCBkcml2ZSBkb2NraW5nIHN0YXRpb24%3D-ac_d_rm&keywords=hard+drive+toaster&pd_rd_i=B0759567JT&pd_rd_r=e09e47e8-4ca4-4491-ad00-e7fe51f21805&pd_rd_w=vC7pi&pd_rd_wg=gr3f0&pf_rd_p=39892eb5-25ed-41d8-aff1-b659c9b73760&pf_rd_r=C68MWDTYF2SC8GXH7E83&psc=1&qid=1572705868&smid=A29Y8OP2GPR7PE

Enclosure:

https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-External-Enclosure-Support-Tool-Free/dp/B01LY97QE8/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2D60K4W29J7DW&keywords=2.5+hard+drive+enclosure&qid=1572705993&sprefix=2.5+%2Caps%2C244&sr=8-7

Mounting the drive via one of these options will tell you whether the drive is readable.

If it is NOT, then the problem is the drive (obviously). If it IS readable, then it's likely the controller on your motherboard.

You cannot replace the controller by itself. It is integrated into the board. Depending on how expensive your computer was and how much you like it, it MAY be worth replacing the board. Sounds like it's not under warranty, so you'd need to do it yourself or pay someone. Likely not worth it.

If it's the drive, then replace it and reinstall Windows. Get an SSD, as mentioned. Don't put a mechanical drive in a laptop. Hybrids are no more reliable, just a little faster. All they are is a mechanical drive with a small SSD for staging commonly-accesses data. They are NOT worthwhile anymore now that SSDs are so cheap. If you had a mechanical drive in there, then you likely won't have an M.2 bus for the drive, so SATA it is.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078DPCY3T/ref=twister_B07P5VF5TL?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Once the new drive is installed, download Windows 10 from here:

Download Windows 10

Create install media with the method of your choice and go to town. Windows 10, when activated, activated the hardware profile of the machine so no key is needed. It should register fine. A drive replacement should not be enough to break activation.

If it does NOT activate, then it's very simple to call the phone number provided by Microsoft and simply tell them you had to replace the hard drive. They will give you steps to activate it. It's simple and painless.

The old hard drive, if dead, can possibly be recovered but the options to do so are either 'this might work if you're lucky', or 'this is effing expensive'. You can try freezing the drive or other old-school methods. Or you can send it to Kroll Ontrack and pay them a lot of money to recover the data.Depends on how much your data is worth to you.

Going forward, what's important is that you BACK UP YOUR DATA. Never let any drive be a single point of loss. Always have redundant copies whether that's a burned DVD or external drive in your safe deposit box or a subscription to a backup service like Backblaze (my preference).

If the drive is good, then the MOBO is bad. Get a new laptop. With an SSD. Back it up. If you need advice on a machine that will serve you well, let me know.

I think that covers it. If you have questions, ask away.

*edit*
Forgot one scenario. IF the drive is readable AND it shows up in the BIOS, then the install of Windows has boot issues. There are steps I can give you to troubleshoot and attempt to fix this. You can try to fix the existing installation, or simply format and reinstall (after getting your data off via one of the USB methods above). But this would only be the route if it both IS a good drive AND the BIOS sees it. There are usually good reasons why the MBR gets corrupted. Usually because of a failing drive. In that case, replacing the drive is probably the road you'd end up taking anyway. But I'd need to see the results of some error checks, an SFC scan, and the logs in the Event Viewer to get an idea whether this is the case.

But, since you said it couldn't find a boot drive, most likely scenario is a dead HDD.

Thank you so much for all this info! I have a couple of questions. Can I use an SD card rather than a USB drive? (I already have an sd, but could go get a USB Drive if needed. And how do I know if I need the 32 bit or 64? The computer model is 15bs060wm and is intel i3 7th gen. Also, I don't see a sticker with a key anywhere.

 

[sneefy]

Yes, an SD is fine.

64 bit.

You don't need a key. Most don't have keys on stickers anymore. If you're prompted for a key during install, skip it. It will give you the option to activate later.

It should activate when it queries MS licensing. If not, like I said, it will give you an error saying it's not activated and provide a number at Microsoft to call. Just explain that you had to replace your drive. It's never been an issue. I've had to do it several times.

 

[troy]

Yes, an SD is fine.

64 bit.

You don't need a key. Most don't have keys on stickers anymore. If you're prompted for a key during install, skip it. It will give you the option to activate later.

It should activate when it queries MS licensing. If not, like I said, it will give you an error saying it's not activated and provide a number at Microsoft to call. Just explain that you had to replace your drive. It's never been an issue. I've had to do it several times.

Thanks again!

 

[sneefy]

Thanks again!

No problem. Good luck!

 

[njpaddy]

I already have an sd, but could go get a USB Drive if needed. And how do I know if I need the 32 bit or 64?

Last week I bought a 32 GB Sandisk Ultra (3.0) USB at Best Buy for $8. I think the 16GB was $7. The smaller the better as long as it's over 8GB. If you're installing Win10 on your old laptop, choose "I don't have a product key" when it asks for a number. My understanding is that once it connects to the internet, it should recognize that your laptop previously had Win10 installed and activate it. My pc never had 10, so I'll eventually have to buy a product key.

 

[ZJ68]

I'm not a tech guy, but I have used pc's since the 80's, owned them since 1994, and been building and rebuilding my desktop since 2007. With any pre-built, Dell & HP desktops and any laptop, I wouldn't waste money on repair.

ps: Food for thought. I've heard tech guys say HP stands for "Huge Problems".

You're right about HP's consumer lines. Junk. Their Elitebooks are good. The Probooks are ok. I wouldn't waste money on anything else they make.

Unless your computer is an absolute bottom feeder, there is probably a really good computer hiding inside that pre-built. They are totally worth repairing, just not paying someone more than the computer costs to do it. They're being hamstrung by a crap mechanical hard drive and inadequate memory. I'm more than happy to take people's cast-off Dell, HP and Lenovo pre-builts and for a few bucks turn them into something really good.

 

[Slash McCoy]

HP printers are not bad. HP computers IMHO suck. WD drives have let me down a lot more than Seagate drives. Just sayin. And Linux has been good to me, as well, especially Ubuntu which is the flavor I have been running ever since W8 came out and sent me screaming from the MS corral out into the wild. Free. No activation hassles. Open source. No built in backdoor (WinDOHs has the biggest and boldest back door of any OS ever created) and oh yeah, free. My day trading computer is a Dell refurb desktop with an upgrade graphics card running Ubuntu 18.04 connected to a 55" monitor. Sweet. Primary laptop running 16.04. Waiting until April to upgrade to 20.04 so I don't have an obsolete version of python to contend with anymore.

I would try every trick in the book to get all those files off that drive, first of all. Best to use a Linux computer and dd to make a disk image, then extract that image on whatever media you have that is suitable. Keep the image on the hard drive of the machine you are using, too, if you have room. Then figure out if you want to save that laptop or not. You may be able to put a new hard drive in there, install and activate WinDOHs, and copy your files onto it. SSD is coming down in price and even if you have to go with a smaller drive, that's okay. You can keep seldom used files on external drives. Such a.s your movie collection, for instance. SSD rocks. Honestly, if you are on a budget I would look at a recently manufactured refurbed machine with a minimum of 4GB RAM, 8 better, and a reasonably fast processor and good graphics, and Dell is a good brand AFAIC. Download Ubuntu image to a thumb drive. Just try it out for a few weeks, after changing your boot order to look for a USB Boot drive first before booting from the internal hard drive. Don't be tempted to run back to WinDOHs at every little speedbump. There is a proper Linux solution to pretty much everything except managing VBA tools for Excel, and a very few external hardware control apps that use serial or USB control. Divorce yourself from Microsoft and you will improve your security posture 100%. More, really. Linux ENABLES you like no other OS, especially when you learn your way around the terminal and BASH shell. I count 5 computers in just my home office. Four more in the living room which is GF's office. All are running some flavor of Linux. Oh and a handful of Raspberry Pi's out in the workshop, running mostly Raspbian Linux. We would never go back. Unfortunately at her job, GF has to do stuff on a WinDOHs machine. Corporate IT policy. She hates that, now.

If you need a USB interface for a 2.5" drive, and you have a failed USB portable HD, you can open it up and remove the controller. Plug your drive right into it. Connect to PC with USB cable. TADAH!!! You saved 30 bucks over buying the same thing from Best Buy.

Hey, it's the 90's already. Computers are too big a deal in modern life to just take whatever "they" shove in your face and this especially means software and especially especially the operating system. No company that has to advertise their software or hardware has your interests at heart. Yes, you can use that for a sig if you like.

 

[troy]

No problem. Good luck!

I installed the drive, inserted the SD card and turned it back on. Now it says need to install an operating system on hard disk. I ran a quick check on hard disk and it says it passed but doesn't seem to be reading the card. I think I need to change something in the boot options but not sure what.

 

[sneefy]

You need to choose what device you're booting from. To get to the boot menu, press F12 during initial boot. (If F12 doesn't do it, it's usually Esc, F2, F10, or F6)

Or, simply enter the BIOS and change the boot order to hit the SD first.

 

[Esox]

I think I need to change something in the boot options but not sure what.

Enter the BIOS and change boot device priority to the SD card or 'removable' as #1 and boot to it. It will automatically install to the drive.

 

[troy]

You need to choose what device you're booting from. To get to the boot menu, press F12 during initial boot. (If F12 doesn't do it, it's usually Esc, F2, F10, or F6)

Or, simply enter the BIOS and change the boot order to hit the SD first.

I don't see a choice for SD
Choices are
intrrnal cd/dvd ROM drive
USB diskette on key/USB hard Disk
USB CD/DVD rom drive
! network adaptor

 

[troy]

I should have a USB card adaptor around somewhere but can't seem to find it. Still looking.

 

[sneefy]

Pick USB. Built-in SD card readers typically run off the USB bus.

 

[troy]

I tried both USB options neither seem to do anything. Maybe I need to pick up a USB drive or adaptor.