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  • Help! Laptop hard drive died (p.3)
2018/12/04 03:45:00
craigr68
Another option would be Steve Gibson's spinrite drive recovery utility at grc.com but it costs about $90.  He says it will also prolong the life of drives if you run it periodically, so it might be a good thing to have around.  I've never tried it, instead opting to keep macrium backups.
2018/12/04 23:15:13
stevetrusty11
Definitely taking all this great advice in.
One major question you guys could maybe answer..

I ran a virus scan on my computer using Microsoft essentials as I always do weekly. I let it go over night. This time the next day the computer was locked up. So I force restarted it. When prompted I did not hit start windows normally, came back to the computer a few minutes later and it was in repair mode. After thinking I could abort. I force restarted while in progress. Well to my stupidity it restarted went to repair mode again. Hour later I did the same force restart. It was then when I was getting the no bootable drive “missing two hdds” message. This is what I did to cause the issue I believe.

The hard drive still spins up, no clicking noise.

So would this essentially say my hard drive is actually good? Just need to reboot windows from my system image backup and the hard drive is back to normal or am I wrong here?? Of course getting my song off the hard drive via usb first, which just arrived today.
2018/12/05 00:25:16
abacab
Getting your current data off the hard drive should be first priority, before you even attempt any repairs, restores, etc.
 
Then using a repair disk. a savvy computer geek could probably use the Windows repair boot to get your system booting again.
 
You probably just boogered up your MBR (master boot record) on the hard drive, and that can be restored using the repair tools in Windows repair disk.
2018/12/05 03:48:06
michael diemer
I have successfully repaired my windows systems many times with  a boot repair disc. It rebuilds your MBR, and takes just a few seconds. It is certainly worth a try. You can create one with the free version of Macrium. That's the one I use. But there are others. If this fails, you probably would need a savvy geek, as someone pointed out a bit ago. But I agree, if your disc spins, it probably can be fixed. Give this a try before giving up. 
2018/12/06 18:07:10
stevetrusty11
Ok.
Update.

I was able to access my files via usb to my desktop using mini tool. Macrium would not access the files for some reason.
So I’ve recovered my recent song and other valuables.

No I’m ready to fix the boot problem.

In Macrium there’s 4 options if I reset the boot id will that make all my plug ins and programs have to never registered and installed? Plus 3 other options.. they don’t really go into detail what they do..

When using mini tool, everything shows as raw data. Though I was able to get any and every file to do with cakewalk. It’s just for just in case.
I have my image backup.

Can I now hook up my external hard drive with the image to my laptop and restore from the image? Then back to normal? Just put my latest save of my song I found back in my projects folder?
2018/12/06 18:08:50
stevetrusty11
Several typos-
“Now I’m ready”

“Programs have to “re”(not never) register”
2018/12/06 18:44:44
michael diemer
Rebuilding your master boot record (mbr) will only affect the very small software programs that allow your computer to boot. If it works, your computer will boot, and all will be well. If it doesn't, you have a more serious problem. My version of Macrium is old, and I'm not sure how to guide you, other than to study the various options it gives you. somewhere there has to be a way to rebuil your mbr.
 
If you have saved what you need, you can try restoring from the image. That also may or may not work. If it doesn't, once again you have more serious problems.
 
 
2018/12/06 18:54:55
stevetrusty11
Gotcha. Thanks man I really appreciate your help and everyone else’s as well! At worse, at least I have my song! Lol
2018/12/06 19:01:30
aidanodr
Steve,
 
Leave the drive in the laptop OR put it back in. Then load a LINUX DVD into the dvd drive and boot off that loading Lunux as live Linux working off the DVD, dont install it to the harddrive.
 
Once Linux Desktop open, run the file manager app ( similar to Windows explorer ). You might see your drive listed under OTHER. Double click and open. You can copy the content to a USB drive also attached. Linux will pick that drive up too.
 
Best simplest Linux flavour for this .. UBUNTU
 
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
 
Download the ISO and burn on another puter if you can.
 
Always handy to have a Linux DVD for this kind of situation
 
2018/12/06 19:26:26
burgerproduction
Have you tried to make a rescue disk from another windows computer?
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3140449/windows/everything-you-need-to-know-about-windows-10-recovery-drives.html
You can try to repair your HD using this rescue disk
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