Hard Drive Not Found?

[buffbrad54]

I have a Dell laptop and recently it has been going into hibernate mode after I leave it on.. but when I return and move the mouse or click a button for the video to reappear it will not come back on. So I turned it off the other day and when it reappears, it will not do anything. What I presume is the hard drive makes a loud clicking noise and then the screen says "Hard drive not found.. No bootable device". Any guesses as to what this might be and might I be able to save my hard drive?

[gusser]

A clicking noise and a non-booting computer sounds like you had a head crash. I suggest checking your bios to see if it is set up properly and detecting the HD. (This is system specific...consult your owners manual) If you did have a head crash then you HD is FUBAR and would cost quite a bit to get the data off.

gus

[Chief911]

Sounds like a classic HD failure. Does SOL mean anything to you?

If its under warranty, they'll replace it for ya. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[smoore]

Yessir, we geeks refer to that as "The Click of Death". Bummer, dude.

[BBill]

actually before you consider it a goner, give the laptop a good hard shake, enough to cause the hard drive to rotate slightly. It could have stopped on a dead spot and if you get it off that it could work.
If it does work make sure you backup all valuable data becasue it will probably happen again.