Boot Disk Failure HELP ME PLZ!

Ok i have a Compaq, Not sure what the hard drive is but a few days ago it froze up so i turned it off then back on i waited and then at the top of the screen it said "BOOT DISK FAILURE,INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER", so i got the compaq system recovery disk,put it in, and pushed ENTER. I got the white flashing bar up top for about a minute then it said "No Hard Drive found, PC Recovery cannot be continued! Press any key to continue." Can someone tell me what to do?chances are my hard drive is blown but if thats the case can someone tell me how to fix it? Normally i'd get a new one but i have important stuff on this one that i cant lose because it isnt written down. Please help me out. Thank You!

 

Unfortunately you've learnt that lesson the hard way, BACK IT UP!
You'll probably need to get a new hard drive, but check the cables to it first, just in case...

 

Remove a side panel of your computer
Turn it on, and feel carefully your harddisk.

If its still spinning then its not dead yet.
Try listening if it doesn't makes any weird sounds.

If everything sounds ok, your could try to put your BIOS back to manufacturer default. It could be possible something/someone adjusted the BIOS. Which can also cause incorrect booting.

Then try to restart your computer.
And then hope it boots up normal again.

 

To be fair, a lot of drives that will never work again will spin up without clicking, you often get circuitry failures.

 

you can get the data back but it's expensive you'll have to dig out your local computer specalistours is 19 computers and he charges £200 a time but if your disk is dead you have no choice

 

pcrepair: nice, that's cheaper than anywhere else I've seen in the UK.

 

Well, I'm working in a computer shop, and all the HDD's that died al wheren't spinning or got jammed.

And to be shure it's dead it should't be detected in the BIOS either.

@Topicposter: Try the Maxtor HDD test utility. It think it was called Maxtor Powermax!
It'll test your harddisk and it'll tell you if its dead yes or no!

Or else try to connect the HDD to another computer, and try copying your data via a working Windows.
Thats how we try to get peoples data back!

 

In any case I have four faulty hard drives in my posession, only one of them doesn't spin up.

 

Same problem here, but the thing is when I hook the HD up to the power supply, I get about 1 second of power then it turns back off. My Maxtor in SATA boots, but it doesnt have windows on it. I tried installing fans before this, maybe I overloaded the PSU?

 

it sounds like it's faulty and is causing an overload.

 

The PSU or hard drive? I do have a feeling that I overloaded it when I added 2 more fans. Any things oyu can suggest that MAY fix it though?

 

well, all I can say is, try removing something that uses power, such as the old hard drive, and see if the PC stays on (doesn't matter that it doesn't boot). If it works, then the power supply's being overloaded, if it doesn't, the hard drive is at fault.

 

I was just tinkering with it now, I managed to get everything working bar the faulty hard drive. So I guess that is toast. I put 2 LED fans in just now, and they work O.K with everything else. Looks like another repair bill -__-