Windows 7 freezed and then HDD disappeared

hotshot05

hotshot05

Level G
Was working no my laptop today. I was using Windows 7 at that moment(mine is a tri-boot lappy - XP, 7, Linux Mint).
uTorrent was running in the background, seeding and downloading data.

I opened Foobar(used it after quite some time). It opened and showed an error - "Foobar was not shut down properly the last time. Do you want to go online and check for problems". I hit "Ignore". Then I selected a song from the items in the last playlist.
My mouse cursor freezed up but windows kept on running. The song started to play and I could see the modem working as well but the mouse pointer was not responding. Keyboard was responding. The onscreen notification for Caps Lock On showed. The Processor/HDD Activity LED glowed continuously

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I kept it like that for 5mins but still the mouse pointer did not respond. Then I hit the power button which would have had made it go to standby.
The screen did turn off but it did not enter standby as I could see the Processor/HDD activity LED glowing and the Power LED on(power LED blinks when laptop is in standby)

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I waited for 5mins again but nothing happened. So I held the power button for 4sec and forcibly shut it down.

When I restarted, it got stuck at the Loading Windows page. I let it continue. When I came back, saw that it had restarted and on a black screen, was displayed a message - "No bootable media - insert boot disk and press enter".

I entered the BIOS and there I saw that only the DVD-RW was being detected, the HDD was not being detected. I restarted lots of times but the same message was displayed.

Why did this happen? What should I do.

My laptop is 1year 4months old and is out of warranty.

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And another strange thing happened.
On my portable HDD, i have a Linux Mint live boot system. I tried to boot into the live CD mode. But it got stuck at the splash screen. I kept it for like 15mins but still the desktop did not appear.

Then I tried using Slax which was on a pen drive. Even it got stuck at the last step.
It displayed - "looking for 'slax' data directory(searching for livecd.sgn file)" and stays there forever.

It seems as if the Linux systems are trying to mount the internal HDD and search for the livecd image on that and gets stuck there.
 
@CA50 I had removed the battery and was running on only line power when this happened. I use this as my download rig. So the laptop is on from 2-8am almost everyday. So to prevent damage to the battery, i run it without battery.

@others It is an HCL ME laptop. It was provided by my college.
Specs - Intel Core2Duo T6600, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 14 inch screen, Intel 4500MHD gfx.

UPDATE
i tried to boot into Slax again. This time it did boot into Slax. The internal HDD was not detected at all.
When Slax boots, it shows whatever it is trying to do(i.e its booting in text mode). Can these diagnostic messages while booting somehow be saved to a file so that I can upload it here??
 
i'd perform hdd specific troubleshooting here

1) can you try reseating the hdd ?

2) Maybe a chkdsk /r from recovery console

3) can you backup your data through hirens boot cd and do a complete reinstallation if nothing works

4) still doesnt work ??? time for a new hdd
 
try removing the HDD and connect to a desktop, next run chkdsk on the HDD, sometimes this works. Also update ur hdd MBR, that must be corrupted
 
most probably your hdd crashed.... sumtimes this happens due to power surge and tripping of over voltage...now all u can try is

1. attatch ur hdd to a seperate machine

2. it will get detected... then from my computer run a chkdsk .... most prbbly it will rectify the corrupted sectors...
 
Since it is a laptop, I dont want to open it up. If it was a desktop, i would have had opened it up without second thought. But have never opened up a laptop before.

Since it is not being detected in the BIOS itself, is there any option other than opening up the laptop??
 
I have encountered one such case with a HP(or HCl) lappy, the mrb was corrupted, i just removed the hdd and attached it my desktop, updated the mbr, deleted all the partition and lol it worked :)
 
hotshot05 said:
Since it is a laptop, I dont want to open it up. If it was a desktop, i would have had opened it up without second thought. But have never opened up a laptop before.

Since it is not being detected in the BIOS itself, is there any option other than opening up the laptop??
Click to expand...
its a very easy process... i dunno why r u being hesitant to do it urself... anybdy with a scrwdriver set can open up the hdd bay cover in the curnt laptops.... donot worry.. it will not void anything... ohh,, my bad u r alrdy out of waranty...
 
There is a sticker on the screws which holds the hard disk bay cover in place. I am worried that if I open it, the HCL guys wont ever service it if I have to send it to their service centre in the future

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Moreover I dont have a 2.5inch casing to connect the harddrive to desktop or any other laptop.
 
laptp servicing without warranty from sc is hell lot of costly... i wouldnt go that way either....

for conncting the hdd u donot need any casing ... simply put it on the dvd writer and connct the power and sata cables of the writer.(if u dnt hav xtra)
 
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