Clicking/OS at start up

MartinAE

Honorable
Dec 12, 2013
1
0
10,510
When I turned on my Laptop, it started to make a clicking noise near the fan. After a few seconds, a message said that the operating system couldn't be found. I ran a diagnostic and there was a blue circle near the hard drive after it was complete. After my laptop restarted, there was the same clicking, so I turned it off and haven't tried since. What can I do to fix this issue? Should I take it apart/take it in somewhere?
 
Solution
+1 ^ sounds like a drive issue. Clicking is not good at all, it almost always means you need some special work to get the data out of it if you don't have backups. Try to take it out and put it into an external drive enclosure, see if it works that way. If not, you would need to take it to a drive repair place and those are not cheap.

There are rare cases where putting the drive in the freezer for several hours wrapped in a paper towel to keep it dryer makes the drive work for a bit, maybe long enough to get data out, but that has a chance of making recovery harder as well. I've been able to shock a drive here and there to life by dropping it flat on a table from a few inches also, that has about as much chance or working as the...
+1 ^ sounds like a drive issue. Clicking is not good at all, it almost always means you need some special work to get the data out of it if you don't have backups. Try to take it out and put it into an external drive enclosure, see if it works that way. If not, you would need to take it to a drive repair place and those are not cheap.

There are rare cases where putting the drive in the freezer for several hours wrapped in a paper towel to keep it dryer makes the drive work for a bit, maybe long enough to get data out, but that has a chance of making recovery harder as well. I've been able to shock a drive here and there to life by dropping it flat on a table from a few inches also, that has about as much chance or working as the freezer. Both things basically shift the hardware just enough to maybe free up a stuck part, but that is very rare when it works. Up to you what you want to try, self repair of hard drives is very risky if you will try to get the data back by having a pro do it.
 
Solution

junkeymonkey

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
402
0
11,260
done is done with that, but realy what do you have to loose? also if you remove the drive as stated above and hook it up like a storage drive on another computer you may get to you files that way .thats how i use my old drives from old builds they wount boot nothing but i can still get stuff of of them. i never tore apart a laptop so i dont know whats involved in replaceing that drive. you can get a new drive and replace it and a copy of a os of your choice if the laptop is too new or cost too much to replace. but that got to buy that new copy windows is what bites for me . newegg should have a drive to fit that once you get it out and mach it up.