thinkpad t41p hard drive crash and vibrations

[avrau]

Hi -- I have two questions, both about T41 harddrives

My girlfriend's T41p completely crashed over the weekend, and now no longer boots. It was under warranty from IBM so they are already sending a new h-drive, but she had some important data on the drive she would like to salvage if possible. Does anyone know how I can attempt to do this myself -- i.e without some crazy specialist equipment? I had a desktop harddrive fail once and was able to salvage its contents by using the

dd

program in linux. But for laptop this is not so easy since I cant just mount the dead HD in another computer. Any thoughts?

The second question is preventative. I have a T41 [yeah, my girl has a better laptop than me] and it's totally fine at the moment. But I have been told a number of times not to walk around with the laptop running or otherwise use the laptop when there is not a solid surface underneath the HD area. The logic given was that apparently the natural vibrations of the HD are normally absorbed when on a desk, etc, but if not supported underneath can cause long term damage to the HD including possible head failure.

Does anyone have anything to say about that theory? Is the APS supposed to take care of these kinds of concerns too, in addition to actual impact shocks?

Thanks

[Leon]

not true, I've walked around with them for years with no ill effects......

[JHEM]

For recovering files from your GF's machine, get a 2nd HD adapter for your T41 and put the "dead" HD in your Ultrabay Slim. Unless it's time to get out the tea and marmalade (i.e. the drive is toast) you should be able to recover most of her files.

If the HD is throwing all kinds of errors and reports that it's not formatted, report back and we can give you a list of utilities to try on it.

It's always best to suspend, hibernate or turn off your Thinkpad before throwing it in its case and heading out the door, but simply carrying it from room to room or office to office shouldn't affect it if left running.

Regards,

James

[avrau]

Ok thanks for comments so far. Will try to find a 2nd HD adaptor and do a recovery.

By the way, on my second point about vibrational damage from not supporting the HD, I heard this from a friend who works for Intel -- IT support there apparently yelled at her for walking around casually with her T40.

I agree it would be a massive design flaw if it were true, but after seeing my girl's HD crap out am not sure what to believe.

[sugo]

In case your girl friend has an iPod, did the intel IT person scream too?

Last time I checked intel doesn't make hard drive ...

[avrau]

fair point on the ipod.

[Leon]

..... Many years of not so gentle useage.....

[BillMorrow]

HDD's do crash, on occasion, from hard useage..
witness the accellerometer in the T42's..
but winchester technology HDD's are made to land on the platters but NOT to hit the platters hard..

so, running drives will take some movement, but not all that much..

the specs are published..

[Leon]

especially shouldn't be a problem with the newer models that have the "air bag" technology...

[Acepro]

Never move a disk drive when it is working (reading or writing): it's the best way to destroy it !

Another solution to your problem it's to buy an external USB disk case where you mount your disk. But maybe your disk couldn't be recognized by the system because the partition table is destroyed. For that, Testdisk (free software) can recover your partitions under Windows.

[Leon]

again, I don't want anyone to "test the limits" and perhaps destroy their machine... I am just relaying my personal experience data in the case it is useful:

I routinely carry/use my machine (T42) in motion without thought or regard to what the disk is doing. This includes using it for about 4 hours while being driven between Boston and NYC. Even worse, I use it routinely on a corporate bus (which lost it's shock absorbers long ago, and shakes like a carnival ride upon each pothole), from the financial district of NYC to NJ and back... yes, the accelerometer complains many times, no I have never lost even a nibble of data...YMMV
(don't try this at home )