Replace a Hard drive on Laptop

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by samy, Oct 24, 2013.

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  1. Aryeh Goretsky

    Aryeh Goretsky Security Expert

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    Hello,

    The ExpressCache is an mSATA form-factor SSD.

    Generally speaking (at least with ThinkPad's) I have had the best results removing the old drive from the notebook computer's internal drive bay, inserting the new drive into the notebook computer and connecting the old drive via an external USB to SATA adapter to perform disk copying/cloning operation from the old external drive to the new internal drive.

    I would suggest removing any additional drives which may be connected to the computer (external USB hard disk drives, printers or scanners with memory card readers, even memory cards plugged into the computer) before starting the process. This ensures that the boot loader for the operating system does not accidentally get written to the wrong drive.

    This should include the 16GB mSATA SSD used as for ExpressCache. In that case, I would suggest removing it, and then re-inserting it once the copying/cloning operation was complete. You may need to reinstall the ExpressCache software to get it working again. It should be available for download from the notebook computer manufacturer's support web site.

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky
     
  2. taotoo

    taotoo Registered Member

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    If the SSD and HD are separate as indicated above, then find out WHICH of the drives is failing. There's no point replacing the HD and retaining the SSD if it's the latter that is the problem (which it might be if a 4gb hibernation file has been written to it multiple times per day for the last three years, say.)
     
  3. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    are you sure its separate aryeh? he mentioned a samsung and i have seen a number which have the seagates in them. i have also seen a separate ssd as you said but not often with samsung's. we do warranty for them as well and i just dont see them with dual drives very often (though they are out there since i have worked on a few just not nearly as often). if that is the case then yes both drives need to be tested to be sure you know which is the bad one. the hybrid drives are now starting to also show up on desktops. which imo is stupid because the one i just worked on the other day actually advertises it like its 2 separate drives but it was not.
     
  4. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Hello

    1. Aryeh, this is ONE drive.

    2. I run Macrium Reflect from Windows since I can't perform a cold backup. The backup process ran for 30 minutes on C drive, than stopped. I got the Error Code 1117
    "Error: Backup aborted! - Unable to read from disk - Error Code 1117 - The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."
    Three subsequent attempts - same results.

    I am running Just now Chkdsk (/r) and the check stopped at:
    "CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)
    13 percent complete (81844 of 237552 file processed)"

    for more than 90 minutes at this moment.

    Do I have to stop or to let it finish? for how long. it seems like the PC freezes.
     
  5. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Give it a few more hours. Does it report Bad Sectors when it finishes?

    Macrium can't read your drive. I suggest trying Image for Linux from a boot CD. If it has problems reading the drive, try again with "Ignore IO Errors" selected.
     
  6. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Hi Brian

    I will leave it for three hours more, as I mentioned the PC seems freeze.

    I cannot ran any program from outside the PC since It has no external CD drive (this is a Notebook) and I cannot boot using my bootable USB key with all the relevant programs on it.

    I'm trying to get an USB CD external drive to check if I can boot using IFL CD.

    After reading the notebook manual I found out that some laptops have as an option, the possibility to backup the drive (thru function F4) . I will check this option too.:gack:
     
  7. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    samy,

    There should be a key to press to get a Boot Menu. I use that instead of having USB ahead of Hard Drive in the BIOS Boot Order. What is the brand of Notebook?
     
  8. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Brian

    The Brand is: Samsung NP530U3B Notebook

    I have another HP laptop where I have to click on the hardware to boot from.
     
  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    F10 is the key to get the Boot Menu.
     
  10. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    can you please try image for windows. when doing the backup if it finds a unreadable sector you can simply ignore it. while this is not the best option you can at least save the data that is on the drive then do a fresh install on the new one and explore the backup to copy what can be saved back to the new installation. i have had to do this actually many times for people because sadly when these drives start to go it seems they go quickly and not in a good way...

    the pc appeared frozen for a few reasons. one could be you had a unreadable sector it was trying hard to recover, second could be a very large file it was scanning. also when a drive is failing and has issues like this it causes (usually) everything to run VERY much slower than normal. i in fact had a chkdsk just last night on a system i was working on take literally all night into the next day. good thing for all that patience was it could relocate the data in the bad sectors to other areas of the drive to areas that could be read. im not sure if its still going or if you shut it off though..

    if it does in fact freeze while running chkdsk from the drive in question what you need to do is boot up from a bootable disk with the cmd window on it or use a windows installation disk and select repair the computer using tools and then you will see cmd i believe as the last option and run it from the boot disk many times trying to run chkdsk from the drive in question will cause issues.
     
  11. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Hello

    for two days I tried to performed the "possible" tests.
    I ran chkdsk for a full night (more than 8 hours) with no effect.
    I ran IFW and when the download was around 73% than the downloading stopped. It shows "Ignore IO errors" and when I clicked "yes" the count down "Time remaining" begun growing up excessively reaching within 10 minutes up to 18000 hours (and on). I stopped the program. I tried the backup using the PC internal program (Key F4) same results.
    I arrived to the conclusion that the HD might be damaged beyond any recovery possibility.
    I found out that there was a technical computer shop which has Samsung approval not so far from my home. I went there and meet the technician. He told me the same statement as Zfactor regarding this hybrid HD, and as per his experience, when damaged, it is not always possible to recover them as with "normal" HD's. He accepted to assist me by replacing the HD, to reload the OS, and to provided one year warranty for a reasonable price.

    Brian, using Key F10 I've got the boot menu but showing only the HD. I searched all the functions in the Bios and found one "Fast Bios Mode" . I changed it to "Disable" , this open the boot menu to all external drives.

    Zfactor and Brian, I would like to thank you very much for your time and your preciousness advices. I've learned a lot, for me it worth the time I spent.

    I have One more question:
    Laptops are sold without the Operating System CD. During my search (above) I found two internet sites from were it is possible to download OS, and it is said that it is an "Official" site:
    http://www.mydigitallife.info/downl...cial-32-bit-and-64-bit-direct-download-links/
    http://www.askvg.com/direct-downloa...nd-untouched-windows-7-iso-32-bit-and-64-bit/
    My question was:
    Is it allowed to reload one of these OS (same as the original one) using the Key in the back of the laptop, in order to reinstall the OS in the case where a HD replacement is requested?

    Regards
     
  12. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    neither of those sites are "official" but yes if you can find a hash matching iso you can easily use your key to install fresh. if possible that you can find another pc and hook up this drive via a normal sata cable and power plug you could (if the drive can at all be read) at least copy off documents, pics, music etc and hopefully get as much data as possible off. i do data recovery very often if there is anything of major importance id be happy to take a look for you if you wanted to send it my way. which os are you looking for?

    stay far away from those drives next time imo.
     
  13. Aryeh Goretsky

    Aryeh Goretsky Security Expert

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    Hello,

    Were you able to locate the exact model of the hard disk drive? I did find a listing for a Samsung PM830 MSATA MZMPC128HBFU Mini mSATA SSD for use in the Samsung NP530U3B, which is an mSATA SSD (although at 128GB, not a cache drive).

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky
     
  14. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Hi Aryeh

    the HD was :
    Hitachi,
    HDD: Z5K500-500
    HTS545050A7E380
    P/N: H2T500854S7

    As you may see, few thread above, Computer managent is showing "Two disks".
    Macrium reflect clearly defined the second disk (20GB) as: SSD.
    But physically it's One HD.

    As I mentioned, the drive was beyond repair, and I had to ask for replacement and reloading of the OS. I've got back the damaged HD, and this is "One" HD.

    Regards
     
  15. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    that is not a hybrid drive i was thinking it was samy. most of those i have seen some with seagate hybrid drives which are a platter style drive and have a built in small ssd type drive. these fail very often. but the drive you mentioned is not a hybrid drive. i have repaired a number of these and those had the seagate drives.

    so as aryeh said above you may have a small msata ssd in there as well. i can contact samsung tomm if you would like me to shoot me a pm i would need some of the laptop info and i can get you exact specs of what is inside. i do warranty on these. lmk if i can help. but the hitachi mentioned is not a dual drive. so unless it it partitioned with 2 partitions one being 20gb and the system / macrium thinks the 20gb partition is a ssd the drive does not contain a ssd.
     
  16. taotoo

    taotoo Registered Member

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    That suggests that the ExpressCache SSD is soldered to the motherboard then (or perhaps even sits on top of the slim HD). Hopefully the HD itself was the problem and replacing it did the trick.
     
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