Hard Drive Problem, Please help. Thank you

[STS06]

Hi guys, its been a long time since I've been to the forums (kinda shows how helpful you guys were...stopped here to decide what laptop to get and got more help than I could have ever asked for- Thanks for that ).

I got a T42 roughly a year and 2 months ago. Until recently, its been the best laptop I have seen (used it in a design class where most people had laptops and this T42 outperformed almost all).

My problems cropped up a week ago with the hard drive making some weird clicking noises....very loud clicking noises. Last week, I had to restart the computer (froze on a program) and after doing so, it went into a diagnostic run. It took more than 30mins and at one point seemed to be frozen. I interrupted the test and restarted (very bad idea). Upon restarting and passing the IBM screen (first screen) it said "operating system not found"! I turned the computer off and waiited for a minute and restarted. It went to the diagnostics test after the window's xp screen and I made sure not to interrupt it. Roughly 1/2 hour later, computer was up and running with not problems.

Now comes the bad part. About two hours ago I started it up and before heading to the lab (college student), I decided to read some CNN. Opened their video news thing and the computer froze. Blue screen popped up saying some hard drive problem and that I should restart. At this point, the HD started making some loud clicking sound. So I did, but now, after the IBM screen, it shows a black screen saying "disk error" and it will not load. I've restarted multiple times, turned the machine off and waited, even replaced the battery with no success. The harddrive continues to make those same clicking sounds which I'm positive it shouldn't be doing.

I'm quite worried about a few things. Its my only computer and its final's week (this is really a bummer ) so I don't think I can get the computer back from IBM before my tests are over. Secondly, I have not dropped the computer (there is a chip on the right side that reslulted from me placing it near a book with which the side lip got caught on and chipped a piece off -I was very mad- but no impact or anything). I'm wondering the following and I'm hoping I can get some help with the issues:

1. In your judgement, will IBM/Lenovo replace the HD if necessary?
2. My HD info is backed up on a portable HD but it does (or did) have sensitive personal info. How can I make sure that this info isn't compromised if I send it in to anyone (private computer fixer or IBM/Lenovo)?

I appreicate any help that anyone can lend. Thank you and hope you guys have a good day.

[STS06]

One other question:

I'm not very laptop savy as you might be able to tell. But I was wondering if the following is possible.

I'm currently using a my friend's IBM A31...pretty old and has some bad graphics card issues (Blue lines everywhere when I scroll and some blue line following the cursor). Anyways, I was wondering if I could swap the hard drives and run his on my laptop.
A.) is this possible?
B.) would it void any IBM/Lenovo warranty?

Thanks once again.

[pianowizard]

1. In your judgement, will IBM/Lenovo replace the HD if necessary?

Yes.

2. My HD info is backed up on a portable HD but it does (or did) have sensitive personal info. How can I make sure that this info isn't compromised if I send it in to anyone (private computer fixer or IBM/Lenovo)?

Format it.

I'm currently using a my friend's IBM A31...pretty old and has some bad graphics card issues (Blue lines everywhere when I scroll and some blue line following the cursor). Anyways, I was wondering if I could swap the hard drives and run his on my laptop.
A.) is this possible?

No.

[GomJabbar]

Buy a spare hard drive from newegg.com or somewhere else. I just bought a spare $49.00 40GB Fujitsu Mobile 9.5mm 5400RPM ATA-6 MHV2040Ah from www.compuvest.com a couple of weeks ago. Virtually the same thing that came with my T42.

You did make that set of Product Recovery Discs didn't you???

EDIT: I meant to add that you can always get the warranty for the original hard drive after finals.

[STS06]

Oh man, I'm an idiot!

I distinctly remember being told (on these forums) to make those disks and I completely forgot about em!!!!

This is not good at all....

As for the advice:

About my information on that HD and whether or not it'd be compromised if I sent it to a repair faciility...how can I reformat it if the computer says there's a disk error? Again, I'm not very computer savy so please excuse my ignorance.


Mr. Gomjabbar...a familiar name! If IBM/Lenovo determines that the HD is no good, how can I make sure that the info on it can't be accessed. I'm assuming they'd just discard this old HD? There's nothing important on the scale of national security or something that could get me in trouble...but I'm just a bit cautious (maybe over cautious) when it deals with the my SS number and stuff of that sort. Also, would IBM/Lenovo install a HD with the OS on it or am I responsible for buying an OS? (might be a silly question).

Yeah I've come to the conclusion that my computer will be MIA until after finals...,

[STS06]

Thanks for the input by the way.

[pianowizard]

About my information on that HD and whether or not it'd be compromised if I sent it to a repair faciility...how can I reformat it if the computer says there's a disk error?

Oh, I see. I read your original post too quickly so I didn't realize your HDD is in such a bad shape. You might want to toss it into your friend's A31 to see if it gets recognized properly in that laptop. It won't boot from the hard drive; instead, boot from a Windows 98 floppy disc or CD, FDISK the HDD, and then format. Another way is to put the HDD in an external drive case (if you happen to have one) and connect it to the A31 while running Windows, and format it using Computer Management. But of course, if the HDD is almost dead, then you may not be able to format it at all, but it's worth a try.

[GomJabbar]

I see your point about erasing data on a hard drive that won't work. If you can get it to run, here is a way to erase the data on it.

ThinkVantage Secure Data Disposal V.1.3 removes all data from a hard drive before a cascade or disposal of the system

Slated price is $5 + tax & shipping. See bottom of page in link.

[christopher_wolf]

Ehh? I have V1.3 and I didn't have to pay; it came over as an automatic and free update. Which means the OP can probably get it for free too if they enter their model number and then select it in their Support&Downloads section. If that still doesn't work (I don't think they changed the licensing on it; you only need to pay to use it on *Non-Lenovo Systems*), the OP can try either the Secure Disposal Boot Diskette (V1.3; Free setup for Thinkpads) or the KillDisk Free Version. No real need to pay as there are free utilities on the net, including that SDD link, that will do it to a DoD compliant level.

[GomJabbar]

My apologies. I did not read the fine print on the aforementioned page. "A license-only (no CD) part number 378922Z will be released for customers that require a license to use Secure Data Disposal 1.3 on their non-Lenovo™ systems." The $5 was for this license.

Here is the download page: Secure Data Disposal