Unrecoverable Hard Disc Problems

[RachelW]

Hi there,
I'm really stuck; I have a very new notebook HP DV1225EA running Windows XP, which stopped working in the middle of a Norton virus scan. (I was doing a second scan, as the first had detected dialers that had not been successfully wiped.)

Since then I have tried to use the recovery console (accessed through the operating system CD provided), but:
- chkdsk /p and chkdsk/ r get to 40% and then say 'The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems'
- md tmp says 'access denied'

A friend tried removing the hard disk (to back up data), but this HP hard disk has holes instead of pins in it, so it's not compatible with the equipment he has.

Any suggestions? I'd really like to recover some data...

Thanks...

[stephen ford]

...I have a very new notebook HP DV1225EA ...

If it's new, then in view of HP's outstanding support facility, have you not thought of contacting HP direct?

[Gizmo]

A friend tried removing the hard disk (to back up data), but this HP hard disk has holes instead of pins in it, so it's not compatible with the equipment he has.

That's because HP use their own proprietry harddrives in their systems. You can easily slave it in another machine and get data off of it.

[RachelW]

Stephen and Gizmo:
Thank you for the advice.
I have been emailing to and from with HP all morning, but no joy yet - none of their suggestions work.

Gizmo says "You can easily slave it in another machine and get data off of it" - how would I do this? I have access to other computers, am willing to try pretty much anything, but don't know anything at all about this kind of thing...

Tips would be much appreciated!

[Gizmo]

Aaah, just remembered that's a laptop harddrive. It's going to be difficult. Best thing I can think of at this moment is that you'll need a laptop harddrive to PATA desktop harddrive adaptor if you're going to slave it into another desktop computer in order to get the data off of it. I'm not sure how much those types of adaptors are at the moment.

[stephen ford]

...I have been emailing to and from with HP all morning...
Did your purchase agreement contain on-site support? I purchased on-site support separately for an HP printer once, for not too much, and ended up calling them out. It worked a treat.

You might try the vendor who sold you the PC, Symantec (for Norton) and post to the Microsoft newsgroup for XP ... and keep the pressure on HP.

[RachelW]

The problem has been in trying to find some way to preserve my data - HP have been great at suggesting ways to wipe the drive clean and start over, but that seems a counsel of despair.

I've now been and bought an adapter ('IDE to 2.5 HDD Adapter) and am hoping that will do the trick in making my drive readable on another machine.

Thanks for the advice; I'll tell you if this latest idea works!