"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
Please read and answer all - I know I tend to be wordy (as do most here
who are trying to help), but most questions I answer here are simple
yes-no answers, and they'll help us all considerably to help you. There
are only about three questions - in fact I'll number them **thus**.

In message , HB writes:

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
[]
_Does_ the poorly PC have a separate panel on the bottom that can be
removed to get at the hard drive?

I already removed it and made sure it went back in OK.
[]
OK, so that's eliminated one source of the problem. It wasn't _that_
likely, just it was easy to check. (Though I have had a machine where it
does slide out of contact occasionally!)

**Q1** Can you tell, by powering up and down with a finger on the drive
(or your ear close to it), whether it is actually spinning up? Not that if
you can't this proves that it isn't - some modern drives are very quiet
and vibration-free. But it's worth a try as it's easy to do. And if it is,
that still doesn't mean that it's working, just that it isn't stuck and
the motor runs.

I can hear it spin up an when the cooling fan starts. Both when not plugged
in so I know the battery is still good and taking a charge.



[If you can be _sure_ that it _isn't_ spinning, you've _probably_ found
the problem: I _suppose_ it _could_ be that the motherboard isn't telling
it to spin or providing power to it, but that's rare.]


Since you can get it out easily enough, the next stage is to do so and
connect it to another computer (obviously you _have_ another computer as
you're talking to us!) and see if _that_ can see it - ideally direct
rather than via USB, as you'd be able to do more thorough tests, but via
USB is better than nothing. Direct would likely to be a desktop machine,
as few laptops have provision for more than one drive. (_Don't_ fit it in
place of the _only_ drive in another machine - that would likely cause
problems!)

I don't know how to safely connect it to the desktop machine. The HDs are
very different sizes. And now with the W-10 forced updates, loss of OE6
because of them and my daughter complaining her favorite game is messed up
on the new HP laptop since the update, this W-7 is all that much more
valuable to me.


**Q2** I _presume_, since it's 250G and someone said the BIOS suggests
it's a modern-ish laptop anyway, that it's a SATA drive (two short
connectors with L-shaped alignment guides, rather than one long two row
connector). **Q3** _Do_ you have a suitable desktop machine with suitable
extra ports to try it in? You might have to buy a SATA cable (and if
unlucky a power adapter cable too: for SATA, the power is on the larger
connector, and you _may_ only have the old four-pin connectors spare). Or,
if the desktop has a SATA DVD/CD drive, you could temporarily borrow the
connections from that.

There are two connecters to the HD in the Toshiba. I have no idea what I'm
doing when it comes to the hardware.


I'll stop there for now. The next question _would_ be **Q4** when the
desktop machine has booted (or does it boot?), does it see an extra drive,
and **Q5** can you look at what's on it. But I'll leave that until we have
the answer to Q3, as if you don't have a SATA connection to test it on
(assuming it _is_ a SATA drive), we'll have to go the USB route.

I have zero computer parts on hand. I wouldn't know what I would need to
connect it to the DT or even where to try to connect it. It's a HP Pavilion
P7-1003W.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"There are a great many people in the country today who, through no fault
of
their own, are sane." - Monty Python's Flying Circus