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Laptop Drive Formatting

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by braddude03, 2007/10/26.

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  1. 2007/10/26
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Alright, my laptop stopped working so I have a question.

    I have an external 2.5 inch harddrive case, so can I put my laptop harddrive in it, and reformat my drive from my desktop system while it's plugged in via USB?

    my HP laptop came with Recovery discs, so this is what i'm using to reinstall the OS.

    Thanks in advance :)

    Brad.
     
    braddude03,
    #1
  2. 2007/10/26
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    You can, but the HP recovery disks will format the drive before installing the image of the drive as delivered.
     
    PeteC,
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  4. 2007/10/26
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Okay, so I restarted by desktop with the external drive plugged in and the CD in the drive, hit F8 to boot from the drive. First it didn't pick up my mouse, so I had to use my keyboard to navigate. So I go through all of the steps, I hit 'Reset to Factory Defaults' and then I get a black page with a ton of errors. One of them had something to do with 'Memory Allocation Error' etc, and the thing just sat there.

    FYI, i'm using a driverless external case, a FireLite with the actual Firelite harddrive removed and replaced with my laptop drive.

    Thoughts?
     
    braddude03,
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  5. 2007/10/26
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hello brad,

    I don't think you can run this process on another system, especially not a Desktop, you're going to have to run it on the laptop. Put the hard drive back into the laptop and do it there.

    Among other problems with this is that the recovery disc is keyed to the laptop.
     
    charlesvar,
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  6. 2007/10/26
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Ah, I see. Well the thing is, the laptop boots up to a black screen, so I guess I can be fairly positive that it is the memory then that is causing the problem.

    Thanks again for the help.
     
    braddude03,
    #5
  7. 2007/10/26
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hi brad,

    Not necessarily.

    Did you try running the install of the recovery cd on the laptop?

    Any more details about the problem? The more the better which would help the hardware folks give you some more ideas.

    BTW, if Pete knew that you would try to install the recovery cd using the desktop, I'm quite sure he would have told you the same thing, probably in more detail :)
     
    charlesvar,
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  8. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Absolutely :) - you posted originally ....
    I wondered why you wanted to go by that route, but my crystal ball was 'greyed out' :)
     
    PeteC,
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  9. 2007/10/27
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Well, i'll explain to you the problem then, it's very simple:

    My laptop boots to a black screen.

    Now, I tend to think that it's the memory that's the problem, because even though the disc drive opens, closes, responds normally, it wont do anything when I try to boot from the disc.

    The laptop originally came with 512 MB of ram (2X 256) but we swapped these out for (2X 512) for 1GB of Corsair ValueRam. It's DDR ram by the way.

    Anyway, for many months, the total amount of ram has been fluctuating. When we first put it in, it says 1024 as it should. Other times it will read 512. So we tried swapping the sticks, and that usually helps. One day, we tried swapping a 256 back in. It was fine at first, running 768 like it should, but then it went down to 256!

    Are the memory slots failing or is all of my RAM garbage? 4 sticks don't work, which seems unlikely to me, or something wrong with the slots themselves?
     
    braddude03,
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  10. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    A basic question which I am sure you have covered .... is the laptop set to boot from CD?

    Do you see anything on the screen at all - makers logo, press Fx to boot from CD, etc?

    Not beyond the realms of possibility that the CD-ROM drive has gone down.

    The past history of the memory readouts is clearly not encouraging and, as you say, unlikely that 4 sticks are shot, but are they all compatible with the motherboard? The original stick should be of course.

    It would be interesting to run a memory checker on the ram - one stick at a time - it may tell you something, if the test will run that is, even though .....
    Could be the memory slots failing - difficult to eliminate from the equation. Does your memory information come from the BIOS or My Computer > Properties?

    Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool or Memtest - both will run from a CD on boot.

    You could also run the hard drive manufacturer's disk diagnostic software, most likely Hitachi (IBM) ....

    ExcelStore ....
    http://www.excelstor.com/en/download.asp
    Hitachi .....
    http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
    Samsung ....
    http://www.samsung.com/in/products/harddiskdrives/utilities/hutil.htm
    Seagate, Maxtor, Quantum .....
    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/
    Western Digital ....
    http://support.wdc.com/download/
     
    PeteC,
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  11. 2007/10/27
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Yes, the sticks are compatible.

    But the problem is, I can't set it to boot from CD. I can't get into the bios, I can't do anything. You turn the laptop on, and you can clearly tell that it's running, but absolutely nothing happens on the screen, no boot loading, no F# to boot from disk, no windows logo, not a chance to access the bios.
     
    braddude03,
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  12. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    This is beginning to sound more as if the screen has failed - or a connection to the screen, especially if the laptop appears to boot up - hard drive light flashing, etc.

    One point you could check - may or may not be relevant on your model .....

    Several laptops I have seen have a small protruding pin close to the hinge line connected to a microswitch which is pressed in when the lid is closed and presumably isolates the screen one way or another. I wonder if that has stuck in - if present.
     
    PeteC,
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  13. 2007/10/27
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Oddly enough we just replaced the hinges a while ago as one of them had broke.

    The harddrive light does not come on at all, and it does not appear to boot up, there are no loading noises, and no sounds coming from the speakers when it would have logged me on....

    I think it has a VGA port in the back, so i'll plug my monitor in and see what happens...
     
    braddude03,
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  14. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    I interpreted that to mean that it was booting up.

    Does the power light come on? Moving on to suspect the power circuit now. Any difference on AC adaptor with or without the battery installed?
     
    PeteC,
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  15. 2007/10/27
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    The power light is on with AC and battery, so I don't think it's a power problem...

    Are you sure it's not the memory slots in the mobo?

    Because you would get something like this if you booted up the PC without any memory, correct?
     
    braddude03,
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  16. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Not something I have done, but I think that you would at least see the first part of the POST screen before the BIOS failed to detect the RAM and - on a desktop at least emit warning beeps. This is an area in which a second opinion is required, but give me a while and I'll experiment on an old box I have upstairs.
     
    PeteC,
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  17. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    You are absolutely right :) - just a blank screen and a repeating long beep from the BIOS.

    A strong possibility that your theory is correct
     
    PeteC,
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  18. 2007/10/27
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Alrighty, well i'm not getting any sort of beeps from my laptop, but I hazard that this may be the right thing.

    If this is the case, then I would think that both memory slots have failed, as they are not detecting the ram.

    The thing is though, I tried to run a MemTest application I have on a disc, but even that wouldn't work.

    Nothing but a black screen. The lights are on, the fan is running, but nothing but a black screen.
     
    braddude03,
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  19. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    I don't think that laptop BIOS's beep - don't recall hearing my laptop give the usual friendly beep at startup. Check - it doesn't.

    If the RAM is not being seen then no memory tester will work - they need to see the RAM in order to perform the tests.

    More strength to the probability of a hardware failure - memory slots may be or some other mobo component.
     
    PeteC,
    #18
  20. 2007/10/27
    braddude03

    braddude03 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Okay, so it's most likely the slots then methinks.

    Is it possible to have them repaired or replaced etc, or do I need to completely swap out the mobo, in which case I'll just abandon the thing and stick with my new one:D ?

    EDIT: Wait, wait, wait, you're saying that the MemTest wont work. I'm told that the MemTest works through the BIOS and checks whether the memory is faulty or not. Doesn't the BIOS have it's own dedicated memory, and thus, regardless of whether the RAM is detected or not it will run?

    I should be at least getting into the BIOS no? But that's the thing, I can't get anywhere, just starts up with a black screen and goes nowhere fast.
     
    Last edited: 2007/10/27
    braddude03,
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  21. 2007/10/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    AFAIK the BIOS has static (flash) memory, not Random Access Memory and my test of booting up a computer with no RAM installed suggests that the BIOS will execute if no RAM is detected.

    If the RAM is not recognised it is not surprising that memory testers fail to work - they require RAM to do so.

    I think you are getting towards the end of the road here - repair memory slots - very unlikely and no certainty that the root cause lies there. A mobo replacement would be the only solution IMO.

    I am hoping that one of the Hardware experts will drop in on this thread and give an opinion.
     
    PeteC,
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