OK, so this afternoon I heard the ‘click of death’ ( I read it a while back in HTMF so I had an idea what it was). Laptop was still working fine when I last checked it. So, I go use it this evening and the screen is blank except for two lines - NTLDR is Missing, press CTRL - ALT - DEL to reboot. do that and nothing happens except the same two lines come up. I can press F2 and get the system setup, but thats it.
Does this mean the HDD is fried? Most stuff is backed up, at least the important stuff. Another thing, in case you couldn’t tell, I’m not the most computer literate person on HTMF and I was wondering if laptop hdd’s are different from normal hdd’s. Are they difficult to install in laptops? I have installed a few hdd’s on desktop pc’s.
Laptop hard drive desktop hard drive no difference. Other than it is smaller in size ( physically ) & Laptop hard drives are pretty simple to install. First remove the screw that holds them in it either slides out sideways OR like the dells you lift up and slide out. My last acer was one screw and the plastic piece slid up and out it came. You then Remove the metal shield around it. Then gently use a small flat blade screw driver and pry off the adapter that is on the hard drive and install it on the other one. similar to a ide cable but its a little black piece… If you need help i can help any time Just need pictures that’s all…
How can you tell what size hdd (1.8 or 2.5) you need. I need to order a new one and I haven’t a clue how to tell the size. Also, my current hdd is a hitachi travelstar 80 gb 4200 rpm. Can I upgrade to a larger capacity and faster rpm and still fit in the same case?
btw, I was very simple to remove, now lets hope its just as easy to replace
Check your warranty! I had to RMA my Acer laptop and it blew me away, they replaced the mobo and returned it in about 10 days… over Xmas& New Years! fixmyacer.com
If it’s out of warranty - yeah it’s a simple change-out. Pop in a new 5400 RPM and don’t use the Acer recovery disks. Get a real XP CD and just use the key on the laptop.
Then you won’t get Acer’s silly FAT32 partitions and junkware.
One more thing…is it possible to recover stuff off the broken HDD? Its not important but it would be nice to make sure I didn’t miss backing up anything important.
