Need help with a failed OS, please; or HDD (?)

[wondering2day]

Hi,

I'm not sure what has failed, it seems it's the OS. We really need to recover important data before formatting the disc and reinstalling an OS, and I'd be grateful if you could help.

It's a Sony Vaio VGN-AW110J laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium.

The system used to get stuck when moving a picture from desktop into a folder, and a Restart would get the computer working again. The problem with moving pictures into a folder persisted for some time, maybe a couple of months. Kaspersky and IObit Malware Fighter were run several times, no threats were found.

So once, when the system got "frozen" again, my brother was in a hurry and put the computer to Sleep instead of Restarting it, hoping it would be back to normal upon "waking up."

When he tried to turn it on again, it just wouldn't start. Nothing we tried has worked so far. The OS seems to be missing, it's not listed anywhere when we try to recover the system booting with F8.

We have used the HDD with an enclosure and connected it to an HP computer running Win 8. As soon as the USB is connected, the HDD starts working/spinning, a progress bar is displayed on the screen, it seems as if the Win 8 were trying to find data on it. This progress bar gets to about 96-97% and then stops forever.

At this point, all we can do is to Safely Remove the drive. First time, the Safely Remove worked. The second time he tried, it would say the Program was being used so it wouldn't allow to remove the disc safely. So he waited for a moment when the disc stopped spinning, and removed the USB cable.

For info, the HDD is listed in the BIOS as Disc 2, and it's showing 320GB of space.

We have run the Kaspersky Rescue Disc, no viruses were found, but neither the C drive was listed. There was an "sda2" in the list, instead.

My questions are as follows.

If we install a Data Recovery software on the Win 8 computer, would it work to recover data from our "enclosed" HDD, considering the HDD starts spinning as soon as it's connected and seems to fail to load?

What was the disc trying to do when showing the progress bar? I mean, is the disc really trying to load data, but it stops at about 97%? If so, what does it mean, regarding the "health" of the HD?

Looking forward to a solution.

Thank you in advance.

 

[alyoshka]

The HDD is failing alright, that's the right conclusion.
No by installing a Data Recovery Software on Win 8 , it's not going to help you with the HDD since it can start working only after the HDD is detected fully.
My question to you is, does the HDD make a clicking sort of noise?

 

[wondering2day]

Thank you so much for your quick reply, alyoshka!

No, the HDD makes no clicking noise, just a usual spinning sound.

If the HDD were "broken," would it be recognized in the BIOS?

How can we diagnose the problem? What if we boot Vista or Ubuntu from a CD? Can they be of any use?

 

[alyoshka]

Booting into anything working on a Live CD is fine most probably. What is the make of the HDD that you have put into the enclosure.
If it's Seagate.... then you'll need SeaTools.... if it's Hitachi/WD.... you'll need to download a HDD Diagnostics Software from their website...etc etc....
And most of these will work under Dos.... or boot directly from a PenDrive.

 

[wondering2day]

Thank you, alyoshka!

It's a Toshiba MK3252GSX drive. I went to the Toshiba website, but the only diagnostic tools I managed to find are said to be "only designed for use with Fujitsu Branded Toshiba" hard drives. "Fujitsu" is to be found nowhere on our drive.

 

[alyoshka]

You can still give it a try.....

 

[wondering2day]

Sorry, need to verify I get things right. Since the laptop/HDD won't start, should we boot from a Live CD, then try to install and run the Toshiba diagnostic tool? I have no idea how this is going to work. In case the HDD doesn't respond, is it still possible to install any software using the Live CD?

Do you think I'd better post in the Hardware sub-forum as it seems our problem is not with the OS? Maybe my OP could be moved here?

Thanks.

Editing to add a question: What will happen if a Vista installation disc is used instead of a Linux Live CD? I mean, will Vista attempt to install itself automatically, or can the installation disc be used as any other Live CD to run the OS?

 

[alyoshka]

No you can't be installing stuff if you only have the live CD on..... You'll need to use the Dos version of any tool that you download....and either boot into Dos using a Dos disc or then if the dos version of the software permits boot into the software itself. There are softwares like that.... Seagate used to have a disk like that from which if you were to boot, it'd allow you to run all the diagnostic from the disc itself.

 

[wondering2day]

Thank you, alyoshka. I'm more than confused now... Have no idea how to use Dos. And I doubt it will find the software, as it's missing in all of the available options when booting with F8. I'd prefer to find a bootable recovery or diagnostic disc that's ready to use.

I see you replied after I edited my previous post (don't know why your reply wasn't displayed then), so I'd like to repeat my following question:

What will happen if a Vista installation disc is used instead of a Linux Live CD? I mean, will Vista attempt to install itself automatically, or can the installation disc be used as any other Live CD to run the OS?

And, sorry, one more questions. If we use the Ultimate Boot CD (someone suggested it on another tech forum), what should we run from the long list of tools found on the UBCD website? TestDisk maybe? I asked this question on the other forum, but got no reply. Maybe you could help?

Thanks.

 

[alyoshka]

No, the Vista Installation Disc is going to try and install itself ... and will not run as any other live cd to run an OS.
That Ultimate Boot CD seems to me like a compilation of a lot of tools... from the name of it. That ought to be helpful.... since I have no idea is that's a pirated compilation I cannot encourage you to use it. But .... if you or a friend has it, use it... it will solve much of the problems... just make sure you read what each tool on that CD does before you use any of them.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

If the failing drive contains valuable data then your best option is to take it to a recovery service where they have the proper tools to do the recovery. The more you mess with it yourself the less likely it is that any useful data can be recovered.