this old computer

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha,

My Dell laptop won't recognize its disk drives! There is one internal and one external, they both worked a couple of months ago. Hardware manager says that both drivers are working properly. I have tried system restore and no help there. Since it is both drives, I am thinking that it is the computer itself but don't know where to go from here. Any thoughts or help is appreciated.

Thanks and God bless Ed

 

[Ed Fenwick]

More on this old computer. If I put in a DVD, "my computer" says "0 bytes used, 0 bytes remaining" However in I ask Videolan to play the DVD, it works!! What next?

TKS Ed

 

[Wes Davis]

Enter the Bios and see if the drives are listed.



Plug the external drive into another computer to see if it is functioning properly.



What exactly are you getting when the computer tries to boot up? Any lights, any errors, any beeps?







/

 

[Richard L]

I agree with Me....(Of course I agree with myself?)



You can also interrupt the boot up by pressing the F12 key when the Dell logo appears on the screen. From there, try to run the diagnostic program? Of course, if your internal drive cannot be read, the diagnostic won't run either, but It may be that the boot sector on the disk is coorupted...and it just does not see a bootable disk?



...Rich

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha Richard, I ran the diagnostic test. (cool, I didn't know about that) It showed a read error "0f002:021c" and unrecoverable block 537904 in several sectors. I reckon that means I need a new drive, is that correct? TKS Ed

 

[Ed Fenwick]

'sorry, 'forgot the other question. Why won't the external DVD recorder be recognized? It works on other computers. Ed

 

[Richard L]

Yep, the harddrive is probably shot, but you can try reinstalling Windows from scratch, and it will do a disk check and reformat the the drive...but of course, you will lose all your data and programs.



The better option is to replace the harddrive and you can buy kits that will allow you to plug your old drive into the USB port to retrieve your data....Except for any files that have the read errors. The kits are availabe in some computer stores or you can order them from TigerDirect. The one I use is a Sabrent, USB cable to SATA & IDE drives. It works for both 2.5" (laptop) and 3.5" desktop drives....Only cost about $24 and I have used it to recover data from dozens of disk crashes (probably close to 100) where I worked before I retired.



If your computer will not boot, the errors are probably in the boot sector or Windows. I have been successful in retrieving about 99.9 percent of the data files on crashed hard drives



...Rich

 

[Richard L]

As for the External DVD, It could be a fluke, but then it's hard to test anything on a broken computer? Get the Dell up and running and then you can test the external DVD player...You might have a bad USB port? Some laptops do not provide enough power for external harddrives and require a separate power supply and/or require they be plugged into 2 USB ports but the drive connector cable will have two USB connectors. I have one that works fine with one USB connector, bot occasionally it requires two? I think that might be a battery issue...low charge or just going bad.



....Rich

 

[Ed Fenwick]

The errors that were shown was when the computer checked the DVD drive. I am hoping that the DVD drive is bad not the hard drive. The computer boots fine and runs everything but DVD stuff.

Thanks, God bless Ed

 

[Richard L]

Ed,

I thought you said the Dell would not recognize the internal or external drive? Is the external drive the DVD?



If the computer can boot up, but not recongnize the internal harddrive sounds like you have a corrupted harddrive and that's what the diagnostics noted as an error. The error may be corrupting the drivers for the USB port/s.



Like I said, you cannot assume that the everything will work if the computer harddrive has errors. If the external DVD drive works on a different computer, then you know it's good.



The only way to know test the rest of the Dell computer is to replace the old corrupt harddrive with a new one an restore or re-install Windows.... You will also have to re-install all the drivers, but you should have a Dell Disk containing all the drivers for the equipment that came with your computer when it was new.



Sorry, but there are no real shortcuts to testing why the external DVD drive does not work until you get the computer harddrive working.



The decision you have to make is if it is worth it to spend money on a new harddrive (pretty cheap now) on an old laptop? That would depend on how old it is and how well it worked for you before this problem started. Depending upon the size of the harddrive you get, the most it should cost is about $100, and TigerDirect has some in the $60-$80 range. It's easy to replace the harddrive yourself, but if you pay someone to do it, it will probably double the cost of the drive.



...Rich

 

[Richard L]

Ed,

I just reread you last post where you said that your internal harddrive works and the error is on the external DVD drive.



I'm not sure that the error you are getting is valid, since the diagnostics may not be properly testing the external DVD drive...or you may have a bad USB port? I would reload the USB port drivers from the Dell disk (or download from Dell) and download or re-install the drivers for the External DVD drive.



....Rich

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Thanks Richard and Me. As you said Richard, the problem was in Windows. The tech is reinstalling today and I get it back tomorrow. Too bad to loose the programs but most of them I have backed up or have the instillation disks for.

God bless you guys for your help Ed