need a computer whiz!

[Foxfan88]

last week i dropped my laptop on the floor (about a 3' fall)

computer was on (in the process of shutting down actually)

the computer doesnt work right now.

I am fairly sure the hard drive is toast.
the computer will turn on and go the black screen that says COMPAQ in the center, and i can get into BIOs just fine, but where the computer would normally boot up the OS and start working, it just sits there. the HD light on the front of the laptop is stuck ON, and doesnt flicker or blink like it normally would.


now for the meat of my question, if i replace the hard drive, do i have to buy a new operating system?? i dont have any recovery discs or anything. can a repair shop perhaps get the data off the toasted HD? and be able to get the OS also???

and if my lucks isnt good, can i just run any OS i can get (computer came with vista home) can i just run windows XP or something??? (dont know if i am limited to only vista)


i'm no computer genius so if someone who knows more than me and can help out i would greatly appreciate it!

Brett

 

[Ozz]

Can you boot to safe mode or to advanced options?

Depending how the HD is you can get the data off probably easily enough, but whether or not they charge more than it's worth is another story. If the HD is truly dead then a data recovery service would be the next thing to consider (that's definitely a lot of $$)

 

[GTOreturns]

Drop it on the floor again to see if it fixes it.


















































































J/K,, yeah recovering data will cost you. If you get a new HD you can put what ever os you want on it.
But don't throw the HD out just incase thats not the prob.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

oddly enough my desktop ive had for 5 years did the same thing today, it wont load the windows xp screen, does bios, then when yousay start normally (when its a choice between safe mode, ect) it sits there, friend said a sector of the hard drive went bad. when i say start in safe mode, it loads drivers then gets to giveio.sys or something like that it stops and freezes. yeah you might need to get a recovery disk, a new hdd wont come with windows on it, or drivers for your wireless card, touchpad, graphics accelerator, ect.. were you useing vista or xp? i can probably send you a cd here in a week or so, for the drivers, go to the make of the comptuers website, you can usually download them, then make a cd with them on it.

 

[jrichker]

I spent the last 10 years fixing computers for a large bank, and laptops helped keep me busy. I understand firsthand the frustration you are feeling.

Most computers have some simple test routines hidden in the BIOS setup. On Compaq & HP laptops, you press F10 on startup to get to them. Your computer may use a different key or sequence of keys to get to the BIOS setup. One of the tests will probably be a hard drive test. The hard drive tests do not harm any of the data on the hard drive, so you can run them and not lose any data or programs.

Once you are in the BIOS setup, go through the menus until you find the hard drive test. There may be a short version or a long version. Choose one and let it run until it finishes and gives you the results. If it will not go into BIOS setup, you have more severe problems than a bad hard disk drive.

If the hard disk drive passes the BIOS test, you may just have a bad file or two. Press F8 when the laptop starts to boot, and you will get Windows safe mode. This will allow you to do some simple repair work to Windows if you have a copy of the original Windows CD. Running a program called chkdsk will often correct bad files if you can get it to run in Windows safe mode. Otherwise you will need a copy of the operating or restore CD.

Each computer sold with a legitimate copy of Microsoft Windows has a product key with the version of Windows it was licensed for. It will also have a product key with five groups of five alphanumeric characters. If the sticker is present, you can probably download a copy of Windows that matches the sticker and reload it. If not go back to where you bought the laptop and ask for the CD’s that were supposed to come with the laptop.

 

[Foxfan88]

i can get into BIOS easy, never have seen the screen that lets you select safe mode (have seen it before, before i ever broke it)

and i did run the test and it comes up "no IDE device detected" or something along those lines.

there arent any important files on the laptop, so its no big deal if i cant get the files or if it costs too much.

another thing i am worried about, i had BE and EA tuning programs registered to my laptop. if i get a new hard drive will the regristrations still work or will i have to plead my case to clint and get new reg codes?( creator of programs)

 

[Kman92]

Get a new Harddrive and Install LINUX..its freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Take your Pic here...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&N=2010150380 1309721217&bop=And&Order=PRICE

 

[jrichker]

i can get into BIOS easy, never have seen the screen that lets you select safe mode (have seen it before, before i ever broke it)

and i did run the test and it comes up "no IDE device detected" or something along those lines.

there arent any important files on the laptop, so its no big deal if i cant get the files or if it costs too much.

another thing i am worried about, i had BE and EA tuning programs registered to my laptop. if i get a new hard drive will the regristrations still work or will i have to plead my case to clint and get new reg codes?( creator of programs)

The "no IDE device detected" means the computer can't see the hard drive's electronics, so it thinks there is no drive present. The hard drive’s electronics or the computer mother board has a problem with the electronic components. It could be as simple as re-seating the hard drive or as complicated as replacing the mother board (UGH!!!) The most likely failure point is the hard drive itself. That means the hard drive's data is inaccessible by the means you or I would have available. The software programs you can use to fix bad disks aren’t going to be of much use if the electronics are so bad the computer can’t see the hard drive.

Recovering the data can be done, but it is usually expensive. I did a quick Google search and got figures ranging from $199-$579. You remove the hard drive and ship it off to the recovery service along with a fat $$$ check . Then you hope they get everything back that you wanted recovered.

I have no clue about the registerations of programs other than the ones supplied by Microsoft. In most cases, the install codes will work OK with a new hard drive in the same machine.

 

[Ike83]

Dude...your hardrive's toast. This just happened to me about 3 weeks ago. Go to Best Buy and get a new HD. Then you'll need to call, well in my case it was HP, so in your case I guess it will be Compaq, and ask them to send the OS disks to you by mail. It will take about a week (sorry), but they sent me Windows XP and the "drivers" disk. Total cost for the disks was about $15. Hard-drive is up to you and how man gigs you want.

 

[backfocus]

I would take it apart and re-seat the hard drive and or cables. Also look for broke solder joints and or ribbon cables. You may have broke something on the fall and a new hard drive won't cure that. But then again it could be the hard drive that failed as well, I would say you won't know until you get in there.

 

[Foxfan88]

turns out the HD is completely dea. i took my laptop to a shop my computer whiz cousin reccomended, they helped me out, found HDs they'd reccomend and hooked my current HD to some machine and it wouldnt even spin up.

so i ordered a new HD and got some cds from HP on the way. i hope that works.