2 foot drop. Operating system not found

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wantathinkpad · #1 Post by **wantathinkpad** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:10 am

Hey, I had my laptop open and when trying to move it fell over just as it was like a V on the ground. I flipped it over then I got a blue screen saying the computer has to shutdown. I not to sure about the blue screen but was hoping that was the active protection system working. It shutdown and sort of restarted then said operating system cannot be found. Then I pressed power again it restarted the process and said operating system not found. Did it again, it restarted and now I am typing on it. The right side of the palm rest has been raised up as a result. It seems that I have to remove they keyboard for the little slots on the palm rest fit back in/under they keyboard. What I am worried about is the hard drive though. The laptop fell on V, not flat on its base onto a carpeted floor, less than 2 feet... Is this normal? What would a restart do? Should I even attempt it? Maybe the active protection system did not have a chance to stop the hard drive before?

christopher_wolf · #2 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:50 am

The HDAPS probably ramped the heads off-platter for the HDD in time, 2 feet is more than enough for it. If the right hand side of the palmrest is raised, that probably means a good deal of the impact was absorbed through there; it might have offset and jostled the connector for the HDD, thus giving you the OS not found error.

Run HDTune and/or Chkdsk on it, also look at the SMART attributes. See what state the drive is in. Report back.

HTH

NS · #3 Post by NS » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:23 am

Arrgggg!!! I don't like to hear this or see this. It is always nothing good after a drop, a fall or similar physical punishments. Me (Mr Koh Wild Boar) abused my TP by beating the right hand palm rest for slow speed and screen lock ups and hangs and i get HDD failure. It also state missing OS. But mine is not like yours. I cannot start up mine at all. This morning, another user also had the same missing OS problem.

I changed my HD and run PC Doctor and run many many tests to confirm my computer is all right. *I got a scare when it just can't boot*. Now, i am typing from my R52 with a new Samsung 100GB 7200RPM HDD. Giving it all the care it requires.

Emm... not to scare you, pls run Pc Doctor and use diagnostics softwares to check your computer thoroughly for damages.

Good Luck,
NS

brewt · #4 Post by **brewt** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:27 am

christopher_wolf wrote:The HDAPS probably ramped the heads off-platter for the HDD in time, 2 feet is more than enough for it.

FYI, HDAPS does not remove the heads from the platter, but just moves the heads into the landing zone where these is no data (also where the heads go when the drive is powered off).

christopher_wolf · #5 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:18 am

brewt wrote:
christopher_wolf wrote:The HDAPS probably ramped the heads off-platter for the HDD in time, 2 feet is more than enough for it.
FYI, HDAPS does not remove the heads from the platter, but just moves the heads into the landing zone where these is no data (also where the heads go when the drive is powered off).

Yeah, where do you think the heads go? Out of the HDD, man?
Not quite a landing zone, different disks implement this different. The IBM/Hitachis have a special ramping load/unload feature.

See; http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ ... rking.html

They go onto the ramps. You *do not* want those heads, especially with their vibration characteristics of a mass on the end of a stiff and light beam (which makes for high frequncy resonance response), being subjected to a strong impulse vibration that excites all the frequencies. The worst case is when the amplitude of the vibrations peak and then make it periodically contact the surface of the platters, gouging them.

Also see IBM's Storage Division, now mostly Hitachi GST's, technology in this area having to do with inventing the Load/Unload Ramping idea; See

http://tinyurl.com/mcx6t

cmarti · #6 Post by **cmarti** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 8:55 am

Thi one is not so complicated.

You will need a new hardrive. That is for sure no further damage is in you lappy.

wantathinkpad · #7 Post by **wantathinkpad** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 6:15 pm

Yeah thanks for replying back. I just came back from work. I called lenovo at work but I needed the hard drive serial number for them so send me a new one. Last night it shutdown after I has posted my message, after trying to play music. This morning it started and I sent all my files to be backed up to my desktop. So far I have moved it upstairs while on so it is no sensitive to movement.

Well i I guess now is my chance to partition my hard drive into two drives. Or is it going to come formatted already? It will only be 80 GB but I was thinking 20 GB for xp and apps and the other 60 for my music and words files right now about 22 GB. Only. OR should I do 20 for up 40 for music’s, and 20 for something in the future like Linux, or Mac Os?

#8 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:49 pm

wantathinkpad wrote:Well i I guess now is my chance to partition my hard drive into two drives.

Well, you can of course do what you want. I used to always partition my drives into (2) or more partitions. I don't do that anymore. It seems I never quite got the proportions right, so that eventually one of the partitions ran out of space, while another partition had extra. Now I just leave it as I comes from IBM/Lenovo. The Service Partition is small, and it's requirements really don't change. I now can use all the space left in my C partition to fit the OS and all my files. This way I get maximum use out of my hard drive.

Another problem that can come up, is if you install or plug in a drive with a primary partition on it after you have created extended partitions on your main hard drive. This will change the drive letter of the extended partition(s) causing an error with any program looking for a file there.

EDIT: If you are creating a partition for installing a different OS in addition to Windows, then I do recommend it in that case.

semaj · #9 Post by **semaj** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:44 pm

this may sound brutal but int he past when this has happened we have taken the hdd out taped it on the side a couple of time to move it around and then put the laptop hdd in again. resat the ram, clicked our heals, prayed the rosery and crossed our fingers. It is important hit to hit it so the heads crash into the disk but the side so it just moves it around for a moment. If you need data recovered off of it expect to pay good odugh. it cost us 2grand one time to recover 12 gigs.

semaj

wantathinkpad · #10 Post by **wantathinkpad** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:25 pm

Hey. Yeah so I called tonight and got a new rep. He told me they would fix everything. He had asked me if I had tried to unseat the HD and open it again. He was also thinking about the ramps and platter talk that a few posters above spoke about. I think that may be or may have been the problem since my computer still starts and the way it dropped wasn't as hard. But for right now the laptop will be sent out for them to fix the cracked palm rest and slightly elevated side above the cd drive. He said because it is a drop they would check everything and to make sure I have backed up everything.

This should/could be a lesson to everyone. Get the thinkpad protection plan it is priceless. I am glad this happened at my house. In my dorm nothing is as low as two feet and there are thick carpets to soften falls.

wantathinkpad · #11 Post by **wantathinkpad** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:53 pm

Laptop mailed out on Thursday to repair center. Mailed back out Saturday morning, Hard drive replaced, new palmrest, new keyboard and tighten hinges. It looks and feels new. And it might as well be considering I got the usb ports/Mobo replaced a month ago. Luckily and unfortunately it was all my fault and not IBM's so I am on satisfied customer.

2 foot drop. Operating system not found

2 foot drop. Operating system not found

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