Hello Ryan, Having just recovered from the 2nd hard drive failure on my Compaq laptop (can I say the word LEMON!), if you have the thing accessing at all, don't turn it off! Back up everything that you can't reload.
My first HD failure acted more like yours. I was able to pull everything off before the drive went belly up. The second failure (after a blown motherboard) up and failed big time. I lost everything that wasn't backed up. More than I care to think about but not so much as to put me a real bind. Needless to say, I have gotten a new machine (not a Compaq!) as I don't trust that crappy Compaq as far as I can throw it. I think two drives and a motherboard in less than 1 year justifies my feelings. BACKUP! -- Best regards, Bruce Friday, January 30, 2004, 2:04:59 PM, you wrote: RL> Completely off-topic but I was wondering if anyone's had this problem before RL> on a laptop. Mine's being difficult lately and since yesterday I've turned RL> it on several times only to have a black screen with the words 'Operating RL> System Not Found' after the Compaq boot screen. This symptom's accompanied RL> by a clicking noise from the harddrive. After about a million tries, its RL> finally restarted this morning but I dare not say how long it'll be up for. RL> Some research on the net suggests something like a loose IDE connection, RL> which makes the comp not recognise a fixed drive. I hope this is the case RL> because hardware replacement's going to be ex.. I'll still have to give the RL> people at Compaq a call and maybe send it down for servicing, but from past RL> experiences, their support department likes to go round in circles. Anyway, RL> I was wondering if anyone's had the same problem and how they got around it RL> (not counting the solutions involving buying a new one..) RL> Regards, RL> Ryan
