[SOLVED] Internal HD not detected

[Aqol45]

Wifes laptop suddenly stopped working with error on boot up of no operating system recognised.

Have fitted a new HD but now trying to recover data from old one.

I have a HD caddy & plugged into my desktop but internal WD HD is not recognised anywhere ..... data mgmt, EaseUS, Disk Drill.

I can feel the HD spinning … any ideas or do I tell wife she has lost everything??

 

[cdrkf]

Wifes laptop suddenly stopped working with error on boot up of no operating system recognised.

Have fitted a new HD but now trying to rever data from old one.

I have a HD caddy & plugged into my desktop but internal WD HD is not recognised anywhere ..... data mgmt, EaseUS, Disk Drill.

I can feel the HD spinning … any ideas or do I tell wife she has lost everything??

It sounds like the control card on the drive has failed... if the content of drive is really critically important then there are possibly ways to get the data off as it should still be intact if the drive still spins up ok.

There are a number of specialist data recovery services that can probably recover the data for you. The alternative (hacky) way of attempting to recover the data would be to look on ebay for the same make / model of drive and then rip the control card out of that and mount to your wife's old drive and see if that brings it back to life. That is somewhat of a risky move though (might be worth a go if the drive content isn't critical).

 

[Aqol45]

Thanks for quick reply …. silly question - I assume the replacement control board's HD does NOT have to be of the same storage capacity?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Thanks for quick reply …. silly question - I assume the replacement control board's HD does NOT have to be of the same storage capacity?

It must be an EXACT match. Even then, unless you transfer all of the data (bad sector map, spare map, etc.) from the old controller to the new you will have problems. Such data recovery should only be done by professionals. Be prepared to pay some big bucks for this.

 

[maikutech]

Thanks for quick reply …. silly question - I assume the replacement control board's HD does NOT have to be of the same storage capacity?

It shouldn't be unless for some odd reason that laptop needs a particular hdd to work which is very rare.

 

[popatim]

If the laptop & drive were encypting, the drive could simply be locked from use because the motherboard bios hasn't unlocked it yet.

Did your wife have to enter in a password or PIN before she could use the laptop?

 

[fzabkar]

Unless there is an unusual problem with the drive's SATA port, it is most probably an internal fault. When the drive spins up, it tries to load certain firmware components from a hidden System Area (SA) on the platters. If any are unreadable, then the drive never comes ready.

Can you retrieve the SMART data with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo (I suspect not)?

BTW, when swapping the PCB, you need to transfer the "ROM" chip at location U12 from patient to donor. This chip stores the unique calibration data for your drive. Suppliers such as hdd-parts.com include a free firmware transfer when you purchase a PCB from them. I think you will be wasting your money, though.