[roqwrp]

Hello Everyone.

I have a laptop that broke a few months ago ago. First the screen got cracked and eventually died. This was fine as I had a monitor to attach it to. The real problem came when the hard drive broke (I think it was from trying to install some software), and until now, I haven't been able to fix it due to the cracked screen (no video output without normal startup).

I recently purchased a new laptop, and have been trying to fix it. I took out my working one, plugged the broken one in, and started up. The "disk read error occurred" message came up, and restarting (obviously) didn't work. I popped in the recovery/repair disk and began Startup Repair; 12 hours later and still running, I decided to give it up (I know should've just let it run, but loosing this HDD wouldn't be a terrible tragedy, and this is my only computer and I want to use it). After restarting, it simply wouldn't run the recovery disk, instead sitting/freezing at the manufacturer screen you can get into bios from. I went and bought a SATA to USB kit, put my laptop's original HDD back in, and hooked everything up. When trying to enter my broken HDD from My Computer, Windows told me it needed to format it. I go ahead and let it try, but it ended up saying it couldn't format it. Any formatting tools I tried using wouldn't detect the broken hard drive (I'm assuming because of the USB connection). I tried putting the broken HDD in place of the normal HDD again, and now it says it doesn't detect an operating system.

So here I am now. I should have come here first, but like I said before, I don't mind if the hard drive is completely unrepairable. Ideally, I would enjoy having it work or finding out how to get an OS back onto it. Even being able to use it for extra storage would be nice.

It is a:
Fujitsu HDD
Model MHZ2320BJ G1 (ID: YTTN)
320GB

The (ex)OS on the broken HDD is Windows Vista; the OS of the computer i'm using now is Windows 7. To reiterate, I think it broke from a failed software installation.

Thank you for your time!

[Advertisements]

Hi roqwrp your analysis would appear to be consistent with the symptoms.

I recently purchased a new laptop, and have been trying to fix it

Was this a brand new laptop and if so what and why were you trying to fix?
Do you have a full windows installation disk and have you set the boot sequence in the BIOS to CD/DVD drive first and the HDD second? How to below;
To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the BIOS/CMOS area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CD/DVD drive.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will be prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings
Have the OS disk in the drive when you reboot and then format and put a partition for your OS on the HDD.

[phillpower2]

Hi roqwrp your analysis would appear to be consistent with the symptoms.

I recently purchased a new laptop, and have been trying to fix it

Was this a brand new laptop and if so what and why were you trying to fix?
Do you have a full windows installation disk and have you set the boot sequence in the BIOS to CD/DVD drive first and the HDD second? How to below;
To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the BIOS/CMOS area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CD/DVD drive.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will be prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings
Have the OS disk in the drive when you reboot and then format and put a partition for your OS on the HDD.

[Kemasa]

The OP is trying to fix a disk from a previous laptop with a broken screen.

You could have a problem with the disk itself, which would mean regardless of how it happened, that the disk might not be usable. The first step is to test the disk using the disk diagnostic program.

It seems that Fujitsu sold their disk business to Toshiba, from the Fujitsu web site:

Fujitsu Limited has transferred its hard disk drive (HDD) business to Toshiba Corporation on October 1st, 2009. Please visit the Toshiba Web Site to see past Fujitsu hard disk drive OEM products.

Hopefully the link will work, otherwise you will need to go to the Toshiba web site and get to the support web page for the Fujitsu diagnostics (it took me a bit of time to find it):

http://sdd.toshiba.c...ties#diagnostic

You may need to connect the drive as a primary disk, not through a USB connection. Test the disk and see if it is working and then, depending on the results, you can go from there and see what can be done.

[123Runner]

You might try putting the broken drive in to your USB case and attach it to the new laptop.
Then follow the instructions below to burn a diagnostics CD.

It does sound like the drive is DOA though.

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use Burncdcc Link is in my signature below

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you

1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool. If you are unsure of the drive manufacturer then you can try seagate diagnostics. It sometimes works on other manufacturers. Hitachi diagnostics is also known to work on Toshiba drives.