Laptop Crash - Takes everything down with it.

[Cyber Punk]

About two weeks ago my sister came over to my house for a visit. She brought an SD card with her to get some pictures and videos off my laptop. I have a Dell Inspiron 1525, so I loaded the SD card into the reader and began to delete some items she already had on the card to make room.

During this process my laptop locked up. I waited about 15 minutes and restarted the system. The system did not load into Windows, it loaded into disc recovery mode. So I ran the Windows start repair and got back into Windows.

When I got back into windows I found that it ran extremely slow. So I ran a check-disk to see if I could find any errors. It found thousands, and after many hours of fixing bad sectors, Windows reloaded and warned me of the threat of hard-drive failure.

With this warning, I immediately grabbed an external and proceeded to backup my important documents and pictures. This resulted in a very long, error filled process that eventually locked up the system.

After resetting the system I found that the external I used would no longer load in windows. Concerned I may have more severe problems I whipped out Acronis and attempted to do a backup outside of Windows. Unfortunately, even Acronis could not detect my external so I used a different one. Backup was successful, on the second external.

Here is where my big problems start. I formatted the HD in the laptop and attempted to reinstall Windows. It would not allow me to do so because of the condition of the hard drive. Bummer I guess I need a new hard drive.

BUT! Both of my external drives are now unreadable on any other system. I even went so far as to remove them from their casing and install them directly into a desktop unit. When the hard drives are present in the systems Windows will not load, it loads to a point and resets. On an attempt to load the system with Acronis the system responds the same way, loads to a point and resets.

I'm at a point where I feel like something is seriously wrong with that laptop. Any insight would be appreciated.

Overview

- Laptop / Windows locked up while reading SD card.
- Upon system reset, Windows would not load
- After fixing Windows boot, system was slow and unresponsive at times.
- Ran Check Disc, which repair countless errors
- After check disk, windows warned of hard drive failure
- Attempted to backup files onto external. System locked up. Which made external HD unreadable in any system.
- Using Acronis, successfully backed up files.
- Now second external is unreadable in any system.
- Removed externals from casing and mounted them internally in desktop unit causes the systems not to boot correctly. Neither into Windows or Acronis.

Sorry for the wall of text gonk

[The Last Rydian]

Are they recognized by some linux distro, perhaps a gparted livecd?

[gfdhicool]

your sister is gonna have to pay but its her fault too do you have an antivirus or antispyware?a virus could b the problem try these websites
http://www.malwarebytes.org
http:www.avg.com (antivirus and antispyware)

[Cyber Punk]

The Last Rydian

Are they recognized by some linux distro, perhaps a gparted livecd?

Windows knows what it is, but I get Error 10. The device cannot start. Plus, the fact that I can't even start the system with the hard-drives installed internally.

[Cyber Punk]

gfdhicool

your sister is gonna have to pay but its her fault too do you have an antivirus or antispyware?a virus could b the problem try these websites
http://www.malwarebytes.org
http:www.avg.com (antivirus and antispyware)

I was thinking it might be a virus too, but I run Malwarebytes (Full) and NOD32 at all times. I just find it strange that a viruses would make hard drives inoperable.

[The Last Rydian]

You obviously have net access, try a livecd.
Knoppix is my recommendation.
http://ftp.knoppix.nl/os/Linux/distr/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso

[Cyber Punk]

The Last Rydian

You obviously have net access, try a livecd.
Knoppix is my recommendation.
http://ftp.knoppix.nl/os/Linux/distr/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso

Thanks.

Using this method I was able to load the HD internally. Once loaded I deleted the system volume information folders as well as some others.

Once I had this procedure done, I put the HD back into its external case and I am once again able to use it as an external. I haven't tried this method on the 2nd HD yet, but I assume I will have the same results.

So, what could have caused this?

[Supa Beanie]

Cyber Punk

About two weeks ago my sister came over to my house for a visit. She brought an SD card with her to get some pictures and videos off my laptop. I have a Dell Inspiron 1525, so I loaded the SD card into the reader and began to delete some items she already had on the card to make room.

During this process my laptop locked up. I waited about 15 minutes and restarted the system. The system did not load into Windows, it loaded into disc recovery mode. So I ran the Windows start repair and got back into Windows.

When I got back into windows I found that it ran extremely slow. So I ran a check-disk to see if I could find any errors. It found thousands, and after many hours of fixing bad sectors, Windows reloaded and warned me of the threat of hard-drive failure.

With this warning, I immediately grabbed an external and proceeded to backup my important documents and pictures. This resulted in a very long, error filled process that eventually locked up the system.

After resetting the system I found that the external I used would no longer load in windows. Concerned I may have more severe problems I whipped out Acronis and attempted to do a backup outside of Windows. Unfortunately, even Acronis could not detect my external so I used a different one. Backup was successful, on the second external.

Here is where my big problems start. I formatted the HD in the laptop and attempted to reinstall Windows. It would not allow me to do so because of the condition of the hard drive. Bummer I guess I need a new hard drive.

BUT! Both of my external drives are now unreadable on any other system. I even went so far as to remove them from their casing and install them directly into a desktop unit. When the hard drives are present in the systems Windows will not load, it loads to a point and resets. On an attempt to load the system with Acronis the system responds the same way, loads to a point and resets.

I'm at a point where I feel like something is seriously wrong with that laptop. Any insight would be appreciated.

Overview

- Laptop / Windows locked up while reading SD card.
- Upon system reset, Windows would not load
- After fixing Windows boot, system was slow and unresponsive at times.
- Ran Check Disc, which repair countless errors
- After check disk, windows warned of hard drive failure
- Attempted to backup files onto external. System locked up. Which made external HD unreadable in any system.
- Using Acronis, successfully backed up files.
- Now second external is unreadable in any system.
- Removed externals from casing and mounted them internally in desktop unit causes the systems not to boot correctly. Neither into Windows or Acronis.

Sorry for the wall of text gonk

You pretty much answered your own question, it's a classic case of hard drive failure. It's not virus's or spyware or anything like that, because to have so many errors at once on your drives screams drive failure. That's why windows and everything is locking up, the internal hard drive of your system is dying and to be honest there's nothing you can really do about it except intermitantly try and retrieve your files if it will allow you to. That's why putting the new drive from the external into your system caused it to boot correctly.


Buy a new hard drive, reinstall your OS and your good to go.

[Cyber Punk]

Supa Beanie

You pretty much answered your own question, it's a classic case of hard drive failure. It's not virus's or spyware or anything like that, because to have so many errors at once on your drives screams drive failure. That's why windows and everything is locking up, the internal hard drive of your system is dying and to be honest there's nothing you can really do about it except intermitantly try and retrieve your files if it will allow you to. That's why putting the new drive from the external into your system caused it to boot correctly.


Buy a new hard drive, reinstall your OS and your good to go.

I'm referring to 3 different hard drives.

HD 1 - Is my Laptop harddrive.
HD 2 - Is an external storage device.
HD 3 - Is an external device.

When HD 1 failed both HD 2 and HD 3 stopped working as well. I'm trying to discover why both my external drives failed to boot after being connecting to a system with a failing hard drive.