Old Toshiba laptop won't boot up!!

[Steve McF]

Here's one for my more IT minded STT colleagues.

I have dug out an old Toshiba Equium laptop that used to be my Mum's, with the intention of copying off any old files of interest, and then wiping the hard drive so we can either chuck the laptop, or sell it for spares/whatever.

It's been in a bag in the cupboard for 3 years or so, and it is probably around 15 years old, but it was working...just very very slow.

But, I cannot get it to boot up at all. I have tried the various methods of power resetting it/removing battery and reinstalling etc, but apart from an initial clicking sound like it is trying to look at the hard drive, it then never seems to read or access the disc at all.

Am I to assume the hard drive itself has died, and if so, can anything be retrieved off it?

[ScarbSaab]

Do you get anything at all on screen or any beeps? If you see a boot logo but it doesn't find the disk, it's likely the disk is dead. If there's nothing at all showing on screen, it can vary from a failed backlight (so booting, you just can't see it) to a dead motherboard. Try removing the laptop battery - I have seen a failed battery prevent power on.

If it's a machine failure, access the drive from a working system. I have a machine with hot swap set up for data recovery, but often a simple USB drive adapter will suffice. You just need to know it has sufficient power to spin the disk. Be careful with the system you use to recover data - you don't want to infect it with anything from the old drive!

If it has read errors, you might still get something back. If it can't read you need software to try and make a disk image from what it can, then recover files from that.

If you get repeated clicking from the drive it's likely a head has gone or the bearing has seized. Consider this a loss unless you pay the specialists. I have recovered data from drives in varying states of failure but it's not a fun job.

[weetabixface]

Get a version Linux that will run on a thumb drive and boot that, you will need to get into the BIOS (hold F2 as you power on) and change the boot drive priority, if it boots from the thumb drive that way you can see if the old HDD is still alive. Puppy Linux is one that I use for coaxing old systems back to life.

NB Creating the bootable USB thumb drive will wipe anything that is on that thumb drive

W

[welshwizard]

I've not had a device fail on me yet...

But when I dispose of an old computer, I take out the drive and house it in a new casing (the rest goes to the tip, charities tend to be fussy what they get, always the latest!!), there is a chance if there is life left in the HDD it will fire up on a remote device.  If it doesn't then you have a choice of expensive recovery specialist or practising sledgehammer skills..  If anything like a phone or tablet or HDD is beyond salvation in our house I destroy them beyond destruction.

[Steve McF]

Well I managed to get the hard drive out and install it in a caddy.....and it worked!!! I was able to copy stuff off etc. So the drive is OK, and minus the hard drive, the rest of the laptop can probably go to the tip. Although it is in very good condition. But being around 15 years old, I guess not of any interest to anyone.

[Steve McF]

Interestingly, today I switched the old laptop on and it did boot up, and did talk to the hard drive. Seemed to be back working normally - there was one error message as it booted up to do with the battery (which no longer holds charge) so I suspect that might have been part of the reason it wouldn't fire up.

Anyway, I have removed the hard drive again and fitted it into a caddy as an extra external drive. But the laptop itself is in very good nick, aside from the dead/dying battery and the removed hard drive, and it has had two upgraded RAM sticks fitted a while ago, so rather than just chuck it down the tip, I ended up putting it on Ebay as 'Parts/not working' for 10 days, and we'll see if it goes. If not, it will sadly have to go to that container at the tip with all the old LCD TVs and computer monitors.I haven't sold anything on Ebay for years and years, and the process was a little clunky, but I got there

[Steve McF]

Well I bunged it on Ebay. someone bid very quickly, and there were a couple of watchers, but no one else bid. So I got a tenner for what was going to be a scrap laptop. The guy is well pleased with it, He upgrades old laptops with SSDs and Win10, so he did that, and he also changed the RAM sticks due to some conflict, fixed an issue with the screen connector, and said it was all working good!!!

So it goes on to live again!!!!!  Beyond Windows Vista!!!! Not bad for a 15 year old laptop!!!!