Is my laptop's hard drive dead?

zlm24 · Aug 28, 2014

My 3-year old Acer laptop suddenly shut down when I was just browsing internet. Then it won't turn back on. When I push the start button it goes on for like 2 seconds (the screen stays black), and shuts off then. The power light is still on.
I have a lot of important school work on the hard drive, so I really need to save the data. I removed the hard drive and tried to boot up the laptop again. It's the same (on for 2 seconds, black screen, etc.). I was told that this means the hard drive itself is OK, right?
Today I tried to connect the hard drive with a 2.5 SATA enclosure to a school desktop, but it didn't show up in My Computer. I don't have admin rights on the computer so I can't check Disk Management.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

USAFRet · Aug 28, 2014

That does not automatically mean the HDD is OK. It 'probably' is, but a broken hard drive may show exactly the same symptoms as a missing hard drive.

Chicano · Aug 28, 2014

See if this helps.

Toshiba laptop shuts down instantly on start [Solved/Closed]
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-596611-toshiba-laptop-shuts-down-instantly-on-start

zlm24 · Aug 28, 2014

USAFRet :

Thanks! But someone told me that a computer will turn on even if the hard drive is dead (it will just say missing operating system). So if I removed the hard drive and the problem exists, it means it's something else that went bad. Is this correct?

zlm24 · Aug 28, 2014

Chicano :

Thanks, but I tried this already and it didn't work =(

Chicano · Aug 28, 2014

zlm24 :

That's correct. The BIOS takes a lot longer than 2 seconds to detect a present or missing hard drive... infact if the hard drive has issues, the BIOS may take longer to post and right after finally listing the HD it proceedes to boot, And if it doesn't detect it, it gives a message... so clearly (to me) your issue is not related to the HD.

Chicano · Aug 28, 2014

zlm24 :

The component that sounds suspicious to me, is the CPU... CPU temp to be more specific. The quick shutdowns seem consistent with an overheating CPU.

Do you use the laptop on a table, desk, on your lap, bed?.

Have you checked the cooling duct opening under the laptop, is it clear?.
Can you hear the cooler fan?

The air cooler duct may have to be checked up to the CPU. Lint may be plugging the duct. Or maybe the cooler fan has stopped running.

If you can find a way to aid laptop cooling with a house fan, directing cool air to the cooler opening, and start it... if it stays on longer than 2 seconds you may have the answer.

As for the hard drive, I don't think you have to worry about your files' integrity, and if you want to retrieve data from the Hard Drive, a Hirens Boot CD may help. Burn a HBCD and boot it on a school desktop, connect your laptop HD from USB, insert a USB Flash drive / Pendrive, access your files and copy them to the USB Pendrive. From the Hiren's Boot CD you are not in the installed Windows so, you don't need administrator permissions to use a pendrive or access your files. But, if you can access the laptop HD via Live CD on the school desktop, you can access it on any computer, all depending on user permissions or security policies which seems to be the what prevented you from accessing the HD via USB on the school computer.

zlm24 · Aug 30, 2014

Chicano :

zlm24 :

The component that sounds suspicious to me, is the CPU... CPU temp to be more specific. The quick shutdowns seem consistent with an overheating CPU.

Do you use the laptop on a table, desk, on your lap, bed?.

Have you checked the cooling duct opening under the laptop, is it clear?.
Can you hear the cooler fan?

The air cooler duct may have to be checked up to the CPU. Lint may be plugging the duct. Or maybe the cooler fan has stopped running.

If you can find a way to aid laptop cooling with a house fan, directing cool air to the cooler opening, and start it... if it stays on longer than 2 seconds you may have the answer.

As for the hard drive, I don't think you have to worry about your files' integrity, and if you want to retrieve data from the Hard Drive, a Hirens Boot CD may help. Burn a HBCD and boot it on a school desktop, connect your laptop HD from USB, insert a USB Flash drive / Pendrive, access your files and copy them to the USB Pendrive. From the Hiren's Boot CD you are not in the installed Windows so, you don't need administrator permissions to use a pendrive or access your files. But, if you can access the laptop HD via Live CD on the school desktop, you can access it on any computer, all depending on user permissions or security policies which seems to be the what prevented you from accessing the HD via USB on the school computer.

Thank you so much for your help. I will definitely try your method and see if the problem is with the cooling fan.
But I think my hard drive somehow died along with my laptop. I've posted in another thread. Can you please help me with it? http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2280635/sata-drive-died-computer-spin.html

xxisubzeroixx · Aug 30, 2014

Thermal paste could be chalk after 3 years, had to replace the thermal compound on loads of laptops that are 2-3 years old.

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