Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
computer got virus...
- Thread starter RyCan3
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If the computer won't turn on it all it has nothing to do with the hard drive. I agree with the other person that it is the motherboard or power supply board or power cord.
If it was the hard drive the computer would still turn on then try to boot and come up on a dos like screen saying cannot read or boot os or something like that. But you could always boot into the bios still and the screen would still turn on and do something.
If it is not the hard drive you can buy one of these kits.
http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter...RMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318200922&sr=8-2
This will let you plug you old hard drive into another computer as an external drive then copy all of the data off.
If it was the hard drive the computer would still turn on then try to boot and come up on a dos like screen saying cannot read or boot os or something like that. But you could always boot into the bios still and the screen would still turn on and do something.
If it is not the hard drive you can buy one of these kits.
http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter...RMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318200922&sr=8-2
This will let you plug you old hard drive into another computer as an external drive then copy all of the data off.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Like I said before, as hopeless at most techs are, I think even they can diagnose a bad hard drive.
I am assuming that OP meant it won't boot into Windows. Saying "the computer won't turn on" is a common mistake when actually meaning "The computer won't load my OS".
OP would you mind clearing this up and letting us know what happens when you press the power button?
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
If its completely dead, it can't be the HD. If it was just a HD problem, at least it will try to POST and give you the beeps. Just my thoughts but hard to tell without seeing the unit.
I have zero confidence in anyone working at a computer tech store like geek squad. While there are plenty of actually good techs the majority are idiots that don't know the first thing and only want to upsell the customers crap they don't need.
I've been getting a lot of laptops where people have been trying to upgrade their BIOS within windows and it kills the mobo. What's crazy is the manufacturers are sending them emails telling them to do this.
I don't know if you did this, but you can try removing the motherboard battery and putting it back in. Sometimes this involves soldering. At least when you get that far you'll be able to check to make sure it's getting power through the power board. After that you can get a usb floppy drive ($13) and try to flash or even blind flash the bios chip.
I don't know if you did this, but you can try removing the motherboard battery and putting it back in. Sometimes this involves soldering. At least when you get that far you'll be able to check to make sure it's getting power through the power board. After that you can get a usb floppy drive ($13) and try to flash or even blind flash the bios chip.
So it is a dead hard drive. You should try to boot up with a linux distro and recover some data (if possible).
I've also heard of some pretty good hard drive recovery programs on linux that might be able to fix it, but I've never used them before.
It was worth a shot, sorry to hear the hard drive died.
I had similar thing happen, there is no guaranteed way to restore without sending off to a clean room to open up drive and repair it which is pricy.
It couldn't hurt to try the Linux boot, you can easily create bootbale CDs or USB drives but chances are slim.
The software to pull info off the iPhone is the best way to go.
I had similar thing happen, there is no guaranteed way to restore without sending off to a clean room to open up drive and repair it which is pricy.
It couldn't hurt to try the Linux boot, you can easily create bootbale CDs or USB drives but chances are slim.
The software to pull info off the iPhone is the best way to go.
What is a conversion kit? I googled and just found some stuff about external hard drives and stuff.
If the hard drive is truly dead the only thing that could be done is to put the platters into a different hard drive (of the same or similar model) and recover the data from there.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Oh thanks.
A conversion kit won't be able to read the hard drive (unless the problem is in the SATA/ATA/Power controllers, which it probably isn't. All that conversion kit is doing is emulating the motherboard's hard drive controllers and power (or does the computer do that over USB?), and then sending everything over USB.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
