Help Needed with Hard Disk Crash !!!

[lotus]

Hi

Had a hard drive crash with my IBM Thinkpad T21 Laptop. It may have
been caused by having installed a piece of software meant for Windows
XP. After I realize that the software does not meet my needs and
un-installed it (without removing shared components), my IBM thinkpad
has been giving me "Unable to load OS" error upon boot consistently.
The very first failure however it gave me something more than 1 line -
but I don't remember it, did remember hearing some clicking sound -
not sure if that meant the reader has collapsed on the disc. But I
didn't hear any clicking with further reboots...

I tried to repair it by using the recovery console - but I couldn't
even do a "chkdsk" - returns with multiple unrecoverable errors found.

When I swaped in a working hard drive and slide in the failed hard
disk as an external drive - the machine does recognize the D as a disk
drive, but thinks it was NOT formatted!!!

1) given my description, can anyone give me an idea whether this is a
hard disk failure or an OS/software related issue?

2) I was told about 3 data recovery companies. www.DiskDoctors.com,
www.ontrack.com, www.drivesavers.com. DiskDoctors has a local lab and
cheaper. But I couldn't find much about them... Wondering if anyone
who might have had experience working with them and can comment on
their service?

Thanks so much!

 

[Rod Speed]

Had a hard drive crash with my IBM Thinkpad
T21 Laptop. It may have been caused by having
installed a piece of software meant for Windows XP.

Looks unlikely to have been due to that, tho it is an odd coincidence.

After I realize that the software does not meet my
needs and un-installed it (without removing shared
components), my IBM thinkpad has been giving me
"Unable to load OS" error upon boot consistently.

And an uninstall shouldnt produce that result either.

The very first failure however it gave me something
more than 1 line - but I don't remember it, did
remember hearing some clicking sound -

That is the evidence that the drive has just died.

not sure if that meant the reader has collapsed on the disc.

It was most likely the drive recalibrating
when it couldnt read the hard drive anymore.

But I didn't hear any clicking with further reboots...

I tried to repair it by using the recovery console - but I couldn't even
do a "chkdsk" - returns with multiple unrecoverable errors found.

Most likely because the drive has died.

When I swaped in a working hard drive and slide in the failed
hard disk as an external drive - the machine does recognize
the D as a disk drive, but thinks it was NOT formatted!!!

Most likely because the drive has died.

1) given my description, can anyone give me an idea whether
this is a hard disk failure or an OS/software related issue?

Much more likely to be just another hard drive failure.

You could trying running Hitachi/IBM's DFT on
the drive and see what it thinks about the drive.
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT