Laptop not booting and HDD is not accessible

[Edwin Joel]

I have Samsung NP300E5Z S0AIN laptop in which I installed windows 10 Technical preview few days back successfully. After using windows 10 for sometime I shut down the laptop. When I started again laptop is just showing black screen and BIOS is also not accessible.

So I tried to install windows 8 again, now installation disc doesn't detect my internal HDD(actually it dectects but shows 0Bytes) and even cmd windows shows size of HDD as 0B. But when I tried to install UBUNTU it detects my HDD and I installed successfully. Again when I restarted laptop, it goes into BLACK screen.

I tried connecting my friend's HDD, now my laptop works without any issue. But when I connected my HDD in my friend's laptop his laptop goes BLACK screen and his BIOS is not accessible.

Pls help me to understand where the problem is (in HDD or anything else) ?

Note: Using Gparted I have formatted my HDD to NTFS format and tried to install windows also, still same problem.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ithaca]

I'm guessing here, but did you format / partition the HDD while installing Windows 10? And is your Windows 8 a 32-bit version?
Does your PC have an oldschool BIOS or a newer UEFI boot?

It is possible that your HDD is formatted and partitioned with a GUID Partition Table (GPT) instead of the usual Master Boot Record (MBR), and that this is unavailable to your Windows installation as the 32-bit versions of Windows 8 do not support this.

If it turns out to be caused by MBR / GPT issues, then you should be able to change this partition style on reformatting through your Windows installation. I will require you not only to format your drives, but to entirely deleted your partitions on said drive and reestablish them.

I'm not at all sure that this is the issue - but it is a possibility.

 

[Edwin Joel]

I'm guessing here, but did you format / partition the HDD while installing Windows 10? And is your Windows 8 a 32-bit version?
Does your PC have an oldschool BIOS or a newer UEFI boot?

It is possible that your HDD is formatted and partitioned with a GUID Partition Table (GPT) instead of the usual Master Boot Record (MBR), and that this is unavailable to your Windows installation as the 32-bit versions of Windows 8 do not support this.

If it turns out to be caused by MBR / GPT issues, then you should be able to change this partition style on reformatting through your Windows installation. I will require you not only to format your drives, but to entirely deleted your partitions on said drive and reestablish them.

I'm not at all sure that this is the issue - but it is a possibility.

Thanks for the response.

I formatted my whole HDD while installing windows 10, and now I am trying to install 64 bit version of windows.

I formatted complete HDD with NFTS file system many times, but still same issue.

 

[Ithaca]

A format of the HDD does not solve the issue, as the issue (if it really is what I think it is) lies not with your format (NTFS/FAT), but with your boot partitioning of the HDD itself.

The partioning of a HDD is - in broad terms - the part that tells your system how much of the physical HDD should be directed to a drive (in the form of C:, D:, etc.). The file system (NTFS / FAT) is not the same.

I did some research, and this issue could still be caused by wrong partition types.

My guess is that you need to remove the partitioning of the HDD (as it may be the wrong type) and let your Windows 8 installation choose a partitioning type for you. If you can get into the Windows 8 installation, this is what you do:

Can you access BIOS now? If you can, kindly check if you're in UEFI or BIOS Legacy mode. This will determine your type of partitioning (UEFI = GPT, Legacy BIOS = MBR).

- Boot the Windows 8 installation.
- When choosing an installation type, select "Custom".
- On the "Where do you want to install Windows?"-screen, select each of the partitions on the drive (C:, D:, etc.), and select "Delete". The drive will show a single area of unallocated space.
- Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows detects that the PC was booted into UEFI / Legacy BIOS mode, and reformats the drive using the GPT or MBR drive format, and begins the installation.

Did this help resolve the issue? If so, then my guesswork was correct.

If not, we need to look closer into the HDD while you can access it with Linux / Ubuntu.

 

[Edwin Joel]

A format of the HDD does not solve the issue, as the issue (if it really is what I think it is) lies not with your format (NTFS/FAT), but with your boot partitioning of the HDD itself.

The partioning of a HDD is - in broad terms - the part that tells your system how much of the physical HDD should be directed to a drive (in the form of C:, D:, etc.). The file system (NTFS / FAT) is not the same.

I did some research, and this issue could still be caused by wrong partition types.

My guess is that you need to remove the partitioning of the HDD (as it may be the wrong type) and let your Windows 8 installation choose a partitioning type for you. If you can get into the Windows 8 installation, this is what you do:

Can you access BIOS now? If you can, kindly check if you're in UEFI or BIOS Legacy mode. This will determine your type of partitioning (UEFI = GPT, Legacy BIOS = MBR).

- Boot the Windows 8 installation.
- When choosing an installation type, select "Custom".
- On the "Where do you want to install Windows?"-screen, select each of the partitions on the drive (C:, D:, etc.), and select "Delete". The drive will show a single area of unallocated space.
- Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows detects that the PC was booted into UEFI / Legacy BIOS mode, and reformats the drive using the GPT or MBR drive format, and begins the installation.

Did this help resolve the issue? If so, then my guesswork was correct.

If not, we need to look closer into the HDD while you can access it with Linux / Ubuntu.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I am not able to access BIOS now, But yesterday I tried to access HDD with LIVE UBUNTU cd and gave some commands.

When I gave command sudo fdisk -l, it showed below message

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util sfdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

Ater that I tried below command to wipe whole HDD(filling Zero), and it was successful.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=1M

After this when I gave command sudo fdisk -l, now the message is different

There is no partition table found in the disk.

Please help me what to do now.

 

[Ithaca]

Why not try your Windows 8 installation again as previously suggested? I assume that you are still able to boot to the Windows installation?

Your Windows installation is able to create a correct partition type for you, as I have explained to you above. I have copied my mini-guide from earlier:

- Boot the Windows 8 installation.
- When choosing an installation type, select "Custom".
- On the "Where do you want to install Windows?"-screen, select each of the partitions on the drive (C:, D:, etc.), and select "Delete". The drive will show a single area of unallocated space. If there are no drives (partitions) available, then this step is already complete.
- Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows detects that the PC was booted into UEFI / Legacy BIOS mode, and reformats the drive using the GPT or MBR drive format, and begins the installation.

I am not brilliant at partitioning through Unix/Linux commands, so I would prefer not to give any advice on how you would do it this way around. Besides, I am not sure how to ensure that the partition type is either specifically MBR or GPT through Unix/Linux. That's why I refer to the Windows installation.

I hope it helps

 

[Edwin Joel]

Why not try your Windows 8 installation again as previously suggested? I assume that you are still able to boot to the Windows installation?

Your Windows installation is able to create a correct partition type for you, as I have explained to you above. I have copied my mini-guide from earlier:

- Boot the Windows 8 installation.
- When choosing an installation type, select "Custom".
- On the "Where do you want to install Windows?"-screen, select each of the partitions on the drive (C:, D:, etc.), and select "Delete". The drive will show a single area of unallocated space. If there are no drives (partitions) available, then this step is already complete.
- Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows detects that the PC was booted into UEFI / Legacy BIOS mode, and reformats the drive using the GPT or MBR drive format, and begins the installation.

I am not brilliant at partitioning through Unix/Linux commands, so I would prefer not to give any advice on how you would do it this way around. Besides, I am not sure how to ensure that the partition type is either specifically MBR or GPT through Unix/Linux. That's why I refer to the Windows installation.

I hope it helps

I tried whatever you said yesterday. Sorry, I didn't mention this in previous reply.

- Boot the Windows 8 installation.Done
- When choosing an installation type, select "Custom".Done
- On the "Where do you want to install Windows?"-screen, select each of the partitions on the drive (C:, D:, etc.), and select "Delete". The drive will show a single area of unallocated space. If there are no drives (partitions) available, then this step is already complete. "DELETE" option is disabled. Only REFRESH option is enabled

 

[Ithaca]

Ah, then we're on the right track, at least.

You should check out this thread and try this out

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-clean-re-install-wont-let-me-delete-old/9ac373ad-bf88-4b6a-befd-231c76071b94

 

[Edwin Joel]

Ah, then we're on the right track, at least.

You should check out this thread and try this out

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-clean-re-install-wont-let-me-delete-old/9ac373ad-bf88-4b6a-befd-231c76071b94

Hi,

- when I gave list disk and tried to clean my HDD, below is the result

Here I think disk 0 is my HDD and it shows only 512 bytes, Disk 1 is the USB device I am using to install windows

Pls help me how to proceed now