Laptop HDD broken?

DonkeyChainsaw · April 26, 2016

2Hi everyone,

I have a weird situation here.

A few days ago i wanted to take apart my old laptop and get the HDD out the use that one in my ''newish'' laptop.
I always check if everything is working before i take everything apart. And that was a good choise because it didn't want to boot anymore.
When starting up it gave me 5 options: 1: Safe mode, 2: safe mode with networking, 3: safe mode with command prompt 4: Last known good configuration and 5: Starting windows normally.
It doesn't matter which one i choose because after i selected one option it goed to the ''good old'' windows xp loading screen just to get stuck after a few seconds, giving me blue screen with some writing on it for a split second and then starts itself up again. So i did managed to get in the bios and run a memory and HDD check. It passed both of those.
I then put the HDD in a nother laptop and see what happens. And...the same problem occured. So it had to be the HDD...i thought...Because when i put another HDD in the laptop which i was taking apart, the same problem also happened.
So the problem lies in my HDD and in the laptop, probably...
But then i plugged the ''broken'' HDD in my desktop. Next to the 1TB HDD which is already in there with windows 10. And...IT WORKED!!!
So i quickly tranferred the files on my desktop HDD, just to be sure.

But my quiestion is: Why doesn't the HDD work anymore in laptops but still does in Desktops? Is it windows XP related? Are the Windows XP files damaged which is why ikt won't boot anymore? But then again, why isn't the laptop working either?
I will just let the HDD stay in my desktop now, since that is the only way to let it work properly.

Specs of the laptop i was taking apart:

Name: HP HSTNN-C31C

OS: Windows XP Professional 32-Bit
CPU: Core 2 Duo T7300 2,0 Ghz
GPU: ATI Radeon X2300 128MB
RAM: 2GB DDR2 667 Mhz
Hard drive: 320GB HDD 5400RPM

Specs of the laptops that the HDD was also tested in:

1: The same laptop as above here.
2: Name: HP G61 420ED

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (Original: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit)
CPU: Intel Dual Core T6600 2,2 Ghz
GPU: Intel GMA 4500MHD
RAM: 3GB DDR2 667 Mhz
Hard drive: 320GB HDD 5400RPM

Specs of the desktop where the HDD worked:

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (Original: Windows 8.1 home 64-bit)
CPU: Intel Core i5 4460 3,2 Ghz
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 760 192-bit (OEM 1,5GB VRAM)
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz
Hard drive: 1TB HDD 7200RPM

The broken HDD was connected in the desktop to a Hot Swap Bay.

I don't need to fix the HDD, i just want to know what the heck is going on, and prevent it in the future.

Thanks already.

Awesomeg1999 · April 26, 2016

Hey DonkeyChainsaw,

Just looking at what you posted, it is not a physical problem with the hard drive but a problem with the Windows XP installation on the drive.

When Windows encounters an error it doesn't know how to handle, it will kick back a BSOD. This is generally caused by faulty hardware, corrupt drivers and/or corrupt OS files. (http://www.howtogeek.com/163452/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-blue-screen-of-death/)

That is why it failed in both laptops and not the desktop. By plugging the hard drive into those laptops, they gave you a blue screen of death because

A. It was booting from the hdd with corrupt files.

B. The installation of Windows XP on that drive isn't configured for use in the second laptop with different hardware.

The reason your desktop was fine was because you didn't boot from the drive. The computer booted to its normal drive and just kinda added the extra drive as storage.

Possible Solutions:

1. Run chkdsk to make sure this drive doesn't have any physical problems (https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true)

2. Provided you got all the data off and don't need any of the data on the drive, you can always just reformat and install Windows.

Hope this helps

DonkeyChainsaw · April 29, 2016

On 26-4-2016 at 0:30 PM, Awesomeg1999 said:

Hey DonkeyChainsaw,

Just looking at what you posted, it is not a physical problem with the hard drive but a problem with the Windows XP installation on the drive.

When Windows encounters an error it doesn't know how to handle, it will kick back a BSOD. This is generally caused by faulty hardware, corrupt drivers and/or corrupt OS files. (http://www.howtogeek.com/163452/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-blue-screen-of-death/)

That is why it failed in both laptops and not the desktop. By plugging the hard drive into those laptops, they gave you a blue screen of death because

A. It was booting from the hdd with corrupt files.

B. The installation of Windows XP on that drive isn't configured for use in the second laptop with different hardware.

The reason your desktop was fine was because you didn't boot from the drive. The computer booted to its normal drive and just kinda added the extra drive as storage.

Possible Solutions:

1. Run chkdsk to make sure this drive doesn't have any physical problems (https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true)

2. Provided you got all the data off and don't need any of the data on the drive, you can always just reformat and install Windows.

Hope this helps

Hey Awesomeg1999,

Thank you so much for your reply. This might be a bit late but i went on a vacation the day after and i just got back.
Your message clears it up for me. I did run the chkdsk as you said, but no errors could be found. The laptop has been thrown to the garbage, as it already was very old and not able to run any programs properly anymore. The HDD is now in my desktop and i removed all the files that were written on it. At least i could save the important files on it.
But one quistion is still remaining for me, the day before it was working perfectly fine. I did not download anything! But the next day it suddenly had corrupted files. How does that happen?

Thanks already.

Awesomeg1999 · April 29, 2016

46 minutes ago, DonkeyChainsaw said:

Hey Awesomeg1999,

Thank you so much for your reply. This might be a bit late but i went on a vacation the day after and i just got back.
Your message clears it up for me. I did run the chkdsk as you said, but no errors could be found. The laptop has been thrown to the garbage, as it already was very old and not able to run any programs properly anymore. The HDD is now in my desktop and i removed all the files that were written on it. At least i could save the important files on it.
But one quistion is still remaining for me, the day before it was working perfectly fine. I did not download anything! But the next day it suddenly had corrupted files. How does that happen?

Thanks already.

Hey DonkeyChainsaw,

Hard drive corruption doesn't really have one specific cause so here are a few

1)Bugs in O.S. (Vista is the worst, but can be fixed)
2)Solar Flares (corrupts data in RAM, this is why IBM always used parity RAM in banks)
3)Static Electricity (worst culprit is chair mats that are NOT antistatic)
4)power Surge and Sag (UPS works wonders here, but turn off during lightening storms if possible)
5)failing hardware (lots of bad capacitors in the world, and you can physically see them)
6)leftovers from previous security applications (they hate each other and go to war)
7)Windows just decomposes with age anyways (Windows is a love/hate relationship)
8)Victim of the billionth bit (all hard disk have an acceptable error rate we are willing to put up with)
9)decomposing magnetic media in the hard disk (progressively creates bad sectors that won’t read)
10)add/remove programs (excessive use accelerates Windows corruption)
11)registry cleaners (just say no, unless absolutely necessary)
12)infections (avast! antivirus and Malwarebytes are the best protection money can buy)
13)dirty power (overloaded neutrals & bad grounds slowly eat away at data integrity)
14)heat (Seagate warranties require air flow, I prefer my hard disks at room temperature)
15)insufficient RAM (your hard disk must compensate and seeks constantly – thrashing)