Laptop won't boot after dropping it!

[Clariman]

My laptop won't boot after it went flying across a hard floor. No surprise there. I'm downloading the Lenovo recovery disks via another PC. However I've just noticed the instructions says it wipes the HDD. Now it maybe the HDD is knackered but I want to boot the PC without erasing it so I can see if anything is recoverable.

So I guess I need to download a basic Windows boot disk or USB? Is there somewhere legit I can do that?

Thanks

[ReformedCharacter]

My laptop won't boot after it went flying across a hard floor. No surprise there. I'm downloading the Lenovo recovery disks via another PC. However I've just noticed the instructions says it wipes the HDD. Now it maybe the HDD is knackered but I want to boot the PC without erasing it so I can see if anything is recoverable.

So I guess I need to download a basic Windows boot disk or USB? Is there somewhere legit I can do that?

Thanks

I would suggest removing the disk and attaching it to a PC, if you have a suitable machine. In that way you can retrieve your data or find out if the disk is damaged. Generally the disks themselves are pretty robust so it may well be that the damage is elsewhere. Another alternative would be to try Hiren's boot disk and utilities, available for CD\DVD and USB:

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

RC

[Adamski]

As said above, connect the hard drive to a PC. You may need the right size screwdriver, and a compatible USB lead (from ebay or Amazon) to connect. (Its a right pain with Apple laptops as need specialist screwdrivers.)

[Clariman]

There's a possibility the screen is broken, rather than the HDD damaged? I replaced the screen on this laptop a few weeks ago having discovered that the laptop was starting up but the screen was blank.

RVF

Definitely not the screen, because it is showing a message on blue screen saying that it needs repaired!

Am downloading a Windows boot disk from MS website. If that doesn't allow me to look at hard disk, I will remove it as suggested.

[Stompa]

Definitely not the screen, because it is showing a message on blue screen saying that it needs repaired!

What exactly does the message say?

[GeoffF100]

There's a possibility the screen is broken, rather than the HDD damaged? I replaced the screen on this laptop a few weeks ago having discovered that the laptop was starting up but the screen was blank.

RVF

Definitely not the screen, because it is showing a message on blue screen saying that it needs repaired!

In that case the laptop is working - up to a point. What is the laptop model number? Is there a manual online? Does the laptop have hardware diagnostics? Can you get into the BIOS?

[Urbandreamer]

I deffinately second the idea of removing and replacing the hard disk.

You don't say what model of Lenovo you have. Some make swapping hard disks very easy. Others would be less likely to notice that you had dropped the laptop.

Inserting the old Disk into a USB caddy might mean that you can read it from any Windows machine to get the data off it. However the hard disk may be totally wrecked, which could be a harsh lesson.

Microsoft provide a media creation tool.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/hel ... tion-media
You can use that to create a "legitimate" copy of Windows. Well it will be legitimate when and if you licence it.

I STRONGLY advise investing in a SSD drive replacement. They survive the drop test a lot better.

[Clariman]

Screen message is

Recovery
Your PC/device needs to be repaired

A required device isn't connected or cannot be accessed

Error Code 0xc000185

You'll need to use recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device) contact your PC administrator or PC/device manufacturer

PC is a Lenovo Idea pad 310. (Love the way autocorrect changed Lenovo to Lemon. Quite appropriate in many ways at the moment!)

[Urbandreamer]

Screen message is

Recovery
Your PC/device needs to be repaired

A required device isn't connected or cannot be accessed

Error Code 0xc000185

You'll need to use recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device) contact your PC administrator or PC/device manufacturer

PC is a Lenovo Idea pad 310. (Love the way autocorrect changed Lenovo to Lemon. Quite appropriate in many ways at the moment!)

It's 1 screw to replace the hard drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xnDMOHXaBo

I woudl swap the hard drive and do a clean installation to a new hard drive to check the laptop.
You could then try taking an image of the old HD and trying a repare.

[Clariman]

To complete the story. After I dropped it the screen initially showed a message saying that a problem had occurred and it was collecting problem data to send. However it sat at 10% forever and I was about to open a zoom call so powered it off and back on again. That may have been a mistake and left it in an unstable position. I then tried to reboot and got into bios but no devices to boot from.

[Charlottesquare]

https://www.lifewire.com/fix-error-code ... 85-4691254

I would have a read above as seems on point re the error number.

Also sometimes trying some odd options with F keys, say repeat press say F6 or F8 on boot, like fast morse, helps.

I had one laptop, though not with that error message, which would not boot, screen froze, the cure was to open back of laptop, remove HDD, blow into HDD socket, reconnect (that was a Toshiba) and it worked again- computers and their errors have a distinct mind of their own.

[Clariman]

I've borrowed a SATA docking Station from a friend and put the HDD in it and attached to another pc. Device Manager identifies it and says it is working properly. However it can not be seen from Explorer. Windows disk management sees it but says it is not initialized. Is this good or bad news? Should I have to do an config work or should it appear automatically in Explorer? Would initialising it delete its contents or just mount it to Windows?

Thanks

[Infrasonic]

https://www.easeus.com/resource/disk-un ... he%20issue.

Just for information, not an endorsement...

Summary
Generally, if your disk shows not initialized, it's probably caused by MBR corruption or physical damage. If your disk becomes unknown and not initialized and shows as unallocated space, you can initialize the disk and then recover data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to fix the issue. If Disk Management shows no information about your disk capacity, you will need other fixes provided to have a try.

Cont.

[Breelander]

disk management sees it but says it is not initialized. Is this good or bad news? ... Would initialising it delete its contents or just mount it to Windows?

If it appears in Disk Management but shows no partitions and says it is not initialised, then the partition table cannot be read from the drive or it is corrupt.

If you initialise the drive it will attempt to write a new partition table, overwriting anything that may be in the old one. That would loose you access to any data in the old partitions.

We are in Data Recovery territory now. Tread carefully, 'Here be Dragons'....

6 Ways to Fix Disk Unknown Not Initialized in Windows 10_8_7 - EaseUS

Full Solutions to Fix Disk Unknown Not Initialized (2 Cases) [Partition Magic]

[Clariman]

Not looking good. The disk is appearing as "unknown" with no size information.

[Breelander]

Not looking good. The disk is appearing as "unknown" with no size information.

No, it doesn't look good. Do you have a backup of your user files? (If not, why not?)

As for repairing the laptop, I think you're going to have to budget for a replacement drive. Even if we can get the drive working again, if it's a mechanical drive it may have further damage yet to manifest itself. I wouldn't trust it.

Which Ideapad 310 do you have, the 14" or 15"? The specs for the 15" say the options were: "up to 1 TB HDD, up to 500 GB SSHD, or up to 256 GB SSD". Impact is unlikely to damage an SSD, so yours was probably the HDD or SSHD. We're looking around the £120 mark for a good brand name 1TB SSD such as the Samsung EVO 860, or around £70 for a 500GB one.

[ReformedCharacter]

Not looking good. The disk is appearing as "unknown" with no size information.

Then it's data recovery territory. How important is the data on the drive? The EasUS link offers a link to some software 'on trial' which would presumably show you the recoverable files and then offer to make them accessible if you buy their software. Partition Wizard looks like the same deal. If it was me I'd try the software I linked to, previously:

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

There are at least 2 possible free candidates there which ought to be able to do what the paid for software can achieve.

RC

[Clariman]

Not looking good. The disk is appearing as "unknown" with no size information.

No, it doesn't look good. Do you have a backup of your user files? (If not, why not?)

As for repairing the laptop, I think you're going to have to budget for a replacement drive. Even if we can get the drive working again, if it's a mechanical drive it may have further damage yet to manifest itself. I wouldn't trust it.

Which Ideapad 310 do you have, the 14" or 15"? The specs for the 15" say the options were: "up to 1 TB HDD, up to 500 GB SSHD, or up to 256 GB SSD". Impact is unlikely to damage an SSD, so yours was probably the HDD or SSHD. We're looking around the £120 mark for a good brand name 1TB SSD such as the Samsung EVO 860, or around £70 for a 500GB one.

It was a 1TB Western Digital SATA drive. I have ordered a WD one of same capacity off Amazon for £32. I have downloaded a Lenovo USB system rebuild so am not worried about that aspect. If the PC itself has problems then I'll buy a new one. Of course I'd rather not have to.

The issue is the data. I'll have up to date backups of MS Money and my Postgraduate Masters work from last 2 years which is all done and dusted anyway. Emails are imap so they are all still there. However other files might have to go back a couple of years yes, I know that isn't good but there is little really essential stuff that I'll lose, but lots of stuff that will annoy me. I should have known better.

[Breelander]

...there is little really essential stuff that I'll lose, but lots of stuff that will annoy me. I should have known better.

You can never have enough backups. I regularly make system images of my machines to an external USB HDD.

I use Macrium Reflect Free. On advantage of Macrium is that you can mount a Macrium image as a virtual drive, then browse it with File Explorer to retrieve files.

[UncleEbenezer]

This is where you want your local geek. If you're posting here, I guess you don't have a close friend who can be asked, but what about a computer club? Failing that, a shop (proper shop, not sales showroom like pcworld).

It's not my area, but wearing my general-purpose geek hat I've rescued a few such cases in my time. Other outcomes include identifying what might yield to specialist attention, or whether something is irrecoverable.