cast iron Posted April 8, 2010 Posted April 8, 2010 My old faithfull IBM Thinkpad T23 died at Croft Unfortunately for me it has all my race data, dashboard set up and ECU calibration files on it!!! It suggests there is a loose cable PXE-E61 Media test failiure, check cable PXE-M0F Exiting intel PXE ROM Operating system not found Ive taken the panels off the base and cant find any loose cables - any clue where to look or what to do? Quote
John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison Posted April 8, 2010 Posted April 8, 2010 Find the hard disk drive and remove and replug the cables to it. Also find the memory and unseat and rseat it. If still no good, tap the laptop on the table top a few times as it boots. Not too hard mind Failing all the above ring the Samaritans Quote
davehall Posted April 8, 2010 Posted April 8, 2010 Try removing the Hard Disc and then reconnecting it. Another possibility is that the Boot order has changed. You would need to go into the BIOS and making sure it's set to boot from the HDD first. Quote
BobS Posted April 8, 2010 Posted April 8, 2010 If all else fails, you can get a usb hard disk enclosure off ebay for a few quid. The hard drive might then be readable from another laptop to retrieve your data. Quote
cast iron Posted April 8, 2010 Author Posted April 8, 2010 Checked the Bios and its set to hard drive I found the ram and not loose I'm not sure where the hard drive is!! its not obvious Quote
Blatman Posted April 8, 2010 Posted April 8, 2010 Boot order won't change on it's own and even if it did, as long as the HDD is in the boot sequence somewhere, BIOS will find it and boot it in the absence of any other bootable media. As John says, reseat the RAM and the cable on the HDD. As it re-boots, check to hear if the HDD is actually spinning. If it is, it would be worth borrowing / buying a caddy and attaching it to another computer as an external USB device and transferring files that way. If it's not spinning then it'll need recovery by a proper data recovery company. Expect to be paying north of 200 quid for that. I have the tools to recover a hard drive if it spins and as long as the heads are functioning, and I'd be happy to have a look at it for you. If the heads aren't moving or the disc isn't spinning, then you're on your own... Quote
Blatman Posted April 8, 2010 Posted April 8, 2010 Checked the Bios and its set to hard driveI found the ram and not loose I'm not sure where the hard drive is!! its not obvious There will be a panel on the base or a slot on the side held in with a screw on the base IYSWIM. It'll be about 2" by 3"... Quote
Captain Colonial Posted April 9, 2010 Posted April 9, 2010 Here y'go... Or something similar... Stop it Blatters, you're getting me excited. Now, can we have a reminder of how valuable a backup drive is? I'm a big believer in them. In fact, when I go on holiday, I give my backup drive to a friend to keep, so if something goes hideously wrong while I'm away, the data is safe somewhere else. Another holiday precaution is scanning all the travel documents, licenses, passports, insurance, cards etc into a password protected PDF file and putting them on a memory stick to keep separately, so if something gets lost or stolen you can quickly prove something or get replacements. Sorry to threadjack - back to the laptop... Quote
Blatman Posted April 9, 2010 Posted April 9, 2010 Now, can we have a reminder of how valuable a backup drive is? I wasn't going to say it. People think I'm a big enough smart A*** as it is... I have one word for you Captain C. Acronis... Quote
Captain Colonial Posted April 9, 2010 Posted April 9, 2010 I have one word for you Captain C. Acronis... OK, go on, why should I pay $50 a year for that when I have a 500GB external hard drive as a backup? I'm open-minded, enlighten me please. Quote
cast iron Posted April 9, 2010 Author Posted April 9, 2010 Here y'go... Or something similar... I've taken that screw out even loked in the online IBM manual but nothing seems to want to leap out looking anything like a hardrive, good news is you can hear it start up! Quote
GeordieBarry Posted April 9, 2010 Posted April 9, 2010 The hard drive is located on the left hand side. It is accessed by removing the security screw, opening the laptop and prise out the end plate at side front left hand edge. If you still can't find it send me your e-mail address andI will send you the manual in pdf format. Cheers, Barry Quote
GeordieBarry Posted April 9, 2010 Posted April 9, 2010 If you have the manual check page 64 for a diagram of how to remove. Quote
Blatman Posted April 10, 2010 Posted April 10, 2010 I have one word for you Captain C. Acronis... OK, go on, why should I pay $50 a year for that when I have a 500GB external hard drive as a backup? I'm open-minded, enlighten me please. Yearly? Nope, buy this product. When I do a backup these days, I simply create an image of my current HDD on to my back up HDD. If the primary HDD fails, the back up is an exact replica of the original, even down to the boot sector. I've recently migrated about 2 dozen PC images with this, and it's ridiculously easy to do. Norton Ghost by comparison is slow, complicated and difficult to use well even for an IT person. The down side is that Acronis is so easy, I've spent a fortune on hard drives this month. My desktop now has 2TB's of space with another 500Gb's of space for backing up my laptop, which is also about to get a new larger hard drive. There is a free trial version of this on the web site, which is what I used to test, and it was just brilliant. Quote
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