Thinkpads Forum

hello all

it has not been a good day today. i think i accidentally screwed up the hard drive in my T43

for no more than 3 seconds i rested my laptop on my lap while my wallet was in my front pocket. what? yes, unfortunately for me, my wallet has a money clip that stays in place with the help of a magnet. as soon as i realized my error, i pulled the laptop away but i think as short a time as that was, i really messed it up. i can't get it to boot past the bios and it is apparently not recognizing the hard drive at all. the HD just clicks away. could i have really fried my HD? could this magnet really have screwed up the HD? (it worked perfectly last time i used it) any suggestions / ideas?

Pull the hard drive out.

Can you get past the splash screen or boot from a "live" CD now?

ajkula66 wrote:Pull the hard drive out.

Can you get past the splash screen or boot from a "live" CD now?

pulled it out and tried to connect it to my desktop via ide-to-usb adapter (like this one) but all i got was more clicking and it never showed up on my desktop

The T43 is probably fine, but looks like the HDD is dead. I doubt the magnet had anything to do with it. Probably just coincidence, but you never know.

Neil wrote:The T43 is probably fine, but looks like the HDD is dead. I doubt the magnet had anything to do with it. Probably just coincidence, but you never know.

yes, i think you are right though i do think the magnet had something to do with it (not sure how but i can't just chalk it up to coincidence)... not sure what to do, hack the T43 into a SATA mod or get a new laptop...