How likely is a spill to damage an HDD?

[canadianvice]

So, here's the situation:
I have a friend of my brother's who dropped his laptop and for some strange reason thinks that if he can't afford a HDD, he's going to be able to afford a new laptop...

Anyhow, my father recently dug a laptop out of somebody's trash, and it seems to have an HDD I would describe as looking ok. That said, from the stickiness all over the keys, it's evident the laptop was tossed due to a bad spill of coffee or something.

Anyhow, plugging the HDD in to my brother's friend's laptop results in two things, one predictable, the other not so much:
1. HP blue screen shows up showing what appears to be an HDD model, and saying it needs to have an OS installed
2. BIOS doesn't seem to detect the HDD, not that I really know how to get around in HP's crippled BIOS.

The Windows 7 OEM disc I have asks for a driver, so there's something up.
Anyhow, just wondering if people think the HDD might be damaged from the spill or if it's worth trying to make work.

 

[clutchc]

From a spill of some liquid, no. Drives are hermetically sealed to prevent even the tiniest of particles from entering. They do have a vent for pressure, but it is one way and is filtered.

But the drive may have other issues that caused it to be disposed of.

Plug the drive in and boot to the Win7 installation disk. When you get to the page that allows you to delete the existing partition(s), do so. Then format it. If the drive is any good, it should be ready for a clean Win7 installation.

 

[canadianvice]

From a spill of some liquid, no. Drives are hermetically sealed to prevent even the tiniest of particles from entering. They do have a vent for pressure, but it is one way and is filtered.

But the drive may have other issues that caused it to be disposed of.

Plug the drive in and boot to the Win7 installation disk. When you get to the page that allows you to delete the existing partition(s), do so. Then format it. If the drive is any good, it should be ready for a clean Win7 installation.

The W7 install disk can't find the partition. The BIOS doesn't seem to know there's a drive either.

 

[clutchc]

Well...
The drive is either shot, or your friend's laptop is damaged from the drop. Can you try the drive on another machine? A desktop?

 

[canadianvice]

Well...
The drive is either shot, or your friend's laptop is damaged from the drop. Can you try the drive on another machine? A desktop?

I guess it's up to that. Regardless, he's basically abandoned the laptop, so I've got all the time in the world. I was just hoping to get a definitive answer and it seems I have one. I'll pop it in the desktop sometime and see.

 

[clutchc]

You may have to repeat the above Win7 installation disk partition/format procedure on the drive. Just don't accidentally format the wrong drive. You may want to unplug the SATA cable from the boot drive temporarily during the format.

 

[canadianvice]

You may have to repeat the above Win7 installation disk partition/format procedure on the drive. Just don't accidentally format the wrong drive. You may want to unplug the SATA cable from the boot drive temporarily during the format.

Hahaha, good times with my linux disk. Fortunately, the only casualty when I did that was my torrents partition.