[AT] OT - laptop hard drive

Sat Nov 14 15:16:36 PST 2015

I just tore one down for a friend.  A bit of a pain, but not too bad to 
take apart (at least after the fact).

I was going to retrieve data from the drive for him (the way the machine 
was behaving before it failed was more along the line of a motherboard 
failure), but as it turned out the drive was the problem.  Once I had 
the drive out, the machine booted up as it should (at least up to the 
point it was looking for the hard drive to boot from....  :o).

Just remember, there are 2 categories of hard drives, those who have had 
failed, and those that are waiting.....  (based on my experience, from 
way too many years working in IT.

Howard

On 11/11/2015 09:19 AM, tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> Just a thought.  When is the last time you defragged the disk.
>
>        From: "tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net" <tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net>
>   To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>   Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 8:18 AM
>   Subject: Re: [AT] OT - laptop hard drive
>     
> Dell publishes detailed instructions on replacing parts fir their laptops.
> http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-15r-n5110_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf
>
> Looks like you are correct.  Hard drive requires a complete tear down.  That is unfortunate as I have a 17R which is likely the same.
> My two older laptops Dell Inspiration 1420 and Vostro 15xx require the removal of two screws and the drive comes right out.
> Oh well it is either software or the Cooling system needs cleaning.  I just worked on my wifes Inspiration. Changed out the power jack.  I found the cooling system was completely stopped up. There was two problems.
> 1. There was a foam filter that was coming apart.2. The foam filter was stopped up with cat hair.
> I blew things out and replenished the heat sink grease and the system runs much faster and the laptop does run hot as before.
>
>   
>
>       From: Mike <meulenms at gmx.com>
>   To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>   Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 10:33 PM
>   Subject: Re: [AT] OT - laptop hard drive
>     
> Just ran the Dell diagnostic and everything came back clean, although
> the final hard drive check took forever to run. I was incorrect about
> the age of the computer it's only 4 years old, Dell N5110. After
> watching some YouTube videos, I would need to take the whole computer
> apart to get to the hard drive, so I hope that's not the problem.
>
> Mike M
>
>
> On 11/10/2015 8:55 PM, Thomas O Mehrkam wrote:
>> Your Dell should have a diagnostic partition.
>>
>> Boot from that and run the diagnostics.  It will test the hard drive
>> memory processor etc.
>>
>> On 11/10/2015 4:09 PM, Mike wrote:
>>> Ran Crystaldiskinfo and Seatools, and everything checked out OK. Looks
>>> like it's time for a wipe and reinstall, not something I look forward
>>> to. I know Dave, buy a Mac.......
>>>
>>> Mike M
>>>
>>>
>>> On 11/10/2015 11:44 AM, Len Rugen wrote:
>>>>      Laptops hard drives are usually even easier than desktops.  Windows is like dead animals, it decomposes, after a few years, it's hopeless, about all you can do is format the hard drive and reinstall.
>>>>
>>>> One test, download a "Live CD" of some Linux OS (I'd suggest Zorin).  You can boot and run that without changing anything on your hard drive.  If is is now fast and stays up, you're probably right about it being OS/disk issues.  If it still crashes, it could be ram, cpu or motherboard.
>>>>
>>>> If the system has a good enough CPU and enough memory, I"d suggest getting a solid state disk (SSD).  No moving parts, they are much faster.
>>>>
>>>>      
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>          On Tuesday, November 10, 2015 10:35 AM, Mike <meulenms at gmx.com> wrote:
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>      Hi all, I have a Dell laptop that is about 8 years old running windows
>>>> 7. I have a hunch that the hard drive may be on it's way out, it takes
>>>> forever to boot, it freezes for no reason, and now I'm getting random
>>>> blue screens that pop up out of no where. I've run every malware and
>>>> antivirus I have and everything is clean. I've installed hard drives in
>>>> desktops before, but never a laptop. How hard is it, and what type
>>>> should I be looking for? Any advantage going with 7200 rpm vs 5400 rpm.
>>>> Right now the computer has a 500GB SATA Samsung hard drive; apparently
>>>> Samsung was bought out by Seagate.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Mike M
>>>>
>>>>
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