I am on a laptop, Lenovo T400 on Vista 64bit. now having a problem where it won't boot into windows. the error message just says cannot find some sys file for windows to load and asks to run startup recovery, which goes to a disk check for errors. the problem is that it stays on this disk checking screen for more than 24hours that i have left it to run and doesn't change. I have tried restoring to a previous backup but that fails and asks me to run disk checking again... I have also tried repairing the OS with a vista recovery disc but that just takes me to the same disk error checking screen again. If i try to load windows vista, it goes to the screen with the running bar on the bottom anf stays for 10-15 minutes before the whole screen goes blank. nothing there, no mouse pointer no nothing and the hard drive light doesn't flash meaning the hard drive isn't spinning. I have also tried transfering my file out from the Lenovo thinkvantage software option on to a usb stick or ext hard drive but an error comes up saying I/O device error so cannot transfer Please help. many thanks in advance
Looks like either: - The hard drive is a dead (Most likely) - There's a hardware issue (Either a real fault or loose connections) Your options: - Test the laptop hardware (other than the HD) by booting from a live linux distro or something like hirens boot CD - Can you get into the bios, does everything look good? Normal temps? - Get the laptop looked at / repaired by someone you trust (if all this is too scary) - Take out the drive from the laptop (usually easy) and mount it in a USB controller etc to test and attempt to extract data (Do you need to get at data if you have a backup?) - Check the connections to and from the drive, sometimes they work loose. You may be able to reseat the drive connections to get it working again - Try installing windows on another drive (USB?) to test the hardware. - Replace the HD and start again with a system restore or clean install. 2.5" drives aren't too expensive these days. - Beg / borrow a replacement drive from a friend / relative to test out the laptop. Good luck.
Thanks Guinevere, I'll try some of the options out tonight when I get home. Unfortunately I need the data. Should have made regular backups but didn't do for the last 3 months...
If you need the data, then you just take the hard drive and put it in another PC, copy the data out and then reinstall the hard drive. If the data is impossible to copy, then it's either lost, or you can try some data rescue company, but be prepared to pay lots of money to save the data, if possible at all. And yes, you should do backups. There is no excuse for not doing them if there are applications like Crashplan.
ok, i connected to pc and can get into it but some of the data can't be read/found on the hard drive even though it shows up on the window as being there. I'm guessing the hard drive is corrupted or going bad? anyway, I'm going to reformat the whole thing and see if it runs fine. if not then a new one on the cards. i'm surprised at the quality of the lenovo laptop. my sony which is a good 3 years older was better bar the poor heatsink.
Yes, then it is corrupted and the hard drive should be replaced. What is in the SMART report for that hard drive ? Not like if SMART catches all problems, i had a drive slowly corrupting data while SMART was happy about the drive.
got new hard drive from hitachi. installed windows and now working great. just some problems with installing window's massive updates list as after updates, on restart the laptop reverts the changes saying the updates were not configured correctly. So now I'm just installing them one by one at a time and then restarting laptop each time.
