Can't detect laptop hdd anymore?

Hi all, I have a sony vaio PCG-R505EL on XP. Couple of months back, when I turned on the system, it says "Operating System not found". So I shutdown and turn it back on and it started working. No problems there after.

Then last week same problem popped up. I couldn't get the system to bootup. Even knoppix couldn't detect the drive. Then I lefted there for an hour and it started working again... After that, I did a drive test and no problem was found.

Today, same problem. But this time, the drive is completely dead. I thought, maybe the cable was bad, so I used an old hdd. Then old hdd worked. Took out the bad hdd and put it on several desktops machines, still drive couldn't be detected.

What could be causing this problem? I'm thinking bad controller? There's no clicking sound, and drive seems to be spinning fine.

Thanks for any advice.
ps. sorry for rambling.

 

nm, I put the drive in the freezer over night and was able to clone it to another one. problems solved.

 

Good job! Most older techs would use freezer you can also use a screwdriver handle and knock the spindle also. Next time put the HDD to your ear and shake it? Do you hear a noise. On the smaller HDD 2.5 they tend to go faster by brand. Hitach, Fuji, IBM where one of the worst ones. Toshiba, WD, Seagate weren't that bad.