Computer Help!

[Din]

Hey guys, so my bro stepped on my computer and its messed up now. When I try to boot it it says:

 

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable.

PXE-MOF: Exiting PXE ROM

Operating System not found

 

 

anyone know what I can do?!? Would be nice to be able to save all my pictures and what not. Any help would be appreciated...

 

thanks

[darrinhurst]

That's an easy fix. Get your brother to buy you a new computer!

 

In all seriousness, I honestly have no idea. Have your brother buy you a new one then take it to someone who knows what they are doing and have them switch everything over for you.

[Taco]

If you can??? stick the harddrive in one of those 30 buck mobile disk drives and then copy to 'nother 'puter. That's how I rescued my stuff when my motherboard went buzzzapp and when it's all said and done you'll have a handy dandy external storage device. and oh, one more thing...........quit storin' your 'puter on the effin' floor

[Tpetey]

If you can??? stick the harddrive in one of those 30 buck mobile disk drives and then copy to 'nother 'puter. That's how I rescued my stuff when my motherboard went buzzzapp and when it's all said and done you'll have a handy dandy external storage device. and oh, one more thing...........quit storin' your 'puter on the effin' floor

 

More than likely it's a hard drive failure.

You may or may not be able to get some stuff off of it, an external drive case for the failed drive may be a good investment.

When you done throw the drive away!

[headscan]

Could be that the hard drive cable has come loose so now the BIOS is trying to boot from a network drive.

[rusty]

Hmm...could be that you have a USB drive plugged in and the computer's trying to boot from it. That's the same message I get when that happens.

 

Remove any USB drives and try again.

[birchy]

Could be that the hard drive cable has come loose so now the BIOS is trying to boot from a network drive.

 

I'm assuming it's a laptop? If so, headscan's reply is a definite possibility. Send me an email and I'll try and help you out (assuming you still have access to a computer based on this post). birch.ryan@gmail.com

[dAm]

Try checking your bios settings to make sure the boot order didn't change. The error you're getting sounds like it's trying to boot from a network drive. If your boot order is correct then your hd has failed.

[Din]

Yhanks for the replies everyone. Tried what you guys said with no luck...took in to get checked and they said my drive is done and they can't recover anything...pretty Happy.

[Din]

Triple post....

[Din]

Double post.

[brewingup]

don't believe 'them'.

 

sounds like you might have done some damage to your computer, but your harddrive might be fine, regardless of what 'they' tell you - based on experience (i've been told to chuck a 3000$ laptop - put the motherboard through the dishwasher and it was fine)

 

Is it a laptop? if so, go buy this: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX21195(ME).aspx

 

take your laptop harddrive out, put it in this enclusure and plug it into another computer like you would an external drive. grab your pictures.

 

If that doesn't work, you might be able to try a data recovery utility. PM me if you need some advice on what to use.

[Castuserraticus]

After 6 lock-ups in the past year I've learned a couple of things. Put the hard drive in another machine to see if it can be read. It may be the controller vs the drive. There are services available that can recover most of the data depending on how bad it's screwed up. Birchy gave me the name of one that's affiliated with Seagate. My guys sent out a drive to WeRecoverData.com and they were able to recover a significant amount of data. These services will assess your drive for recovery. My tech guys and a local "specialist" had said the data was unrecoverable. The recovery was $1000 but it gave me back just about 6 mos worth of work.

 

The data is likely still there on your drive. The real experts (Seagate, et al) are the ones to contact for a free assessment.

[bhurt]

don't believe 'them'.

 

sounds like you might have done some damage to your computer, but your harddrive might be fine, regardless of what 'they' tell you - based on experience (i've been told to chuck a 3000$ laptop - put the motherboard through the dishwasher and it was fine)

 

Is it a laptop? if so, go buy this: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX21195(ME).aspx

 

take your laptop harddrive out, put it in this enclusure and plug it into another computer like you would an external drive. grab your pictures.

 

If that doesn't work, you might be able to try a data recovery utility. PM me if you need some advice on what to use.

 

This might work but I doubt it.

 

What sounds like happened to me is when Mitch's bro steped on his laptop he might of pushed the HD pin down against the disk (If you have ever taken a HD apart you will notice that the actuall Disk looks like the old floppy drives, and there is a small pin that reads the data) Also your ball bearings on the HD could of come out thus not allowing the disk to spin propperly.

 

If the pin has touch the disk surface most likely there is nothing you can, data recovery programs might work but you might just get partical info or corrupt data depending where the damage was done on the HD.

 

I had a external HD that I had dropped and this is what happened the wiz's at Memory Express took apart my HD and showed me this, that is why I no longer buy portable external HD's and just get one 1TB EXT HD that stays in the same place all the time, no chance of me beeing clumsy and dropping it again.

[birchy]

After 6 lock-ups in the past year I've learned a couple of things. Put the hard drive in another machine to see if it can be read. It may be the controller vs the drive. There are services available that can recover most of the data depending on how bad it's screwed up. Birchy gave me the name of one that's affiliated with Seagate. My guys sent out a drive to WeRecoverData.com and they were able to recover a significant amount of data. These services will assess your drive for recovery. My tech guys and a local "specialist" had said the data was unrecoverable. The recovery was $1000 but it gave me back just about 6 mos worth of work.

 

The data is likely still there on your drive. The real experts (Seagate, et al) are the ones to contact for a free assessment.

 

Bingo. It's actually pretty rare that ALL the data is COMPLETELY unrecoverable. It usually ends up being a matter of when does the cost of getting it back outweigh the sentimental value/value of the lost work.

[Din]

Thanks again for the response. I'm out of town, but when I get back I'll give it a go in another comp, then if no go I'll consider getting it appraised by the data recovery people...not sure its worth the cost of doing that though...