Hard drive not found

[Bhop]

Hey guys. My friend said he turned his laptop on and it pulled up the black screen and said Hard Drive not found. He hadn't done anything to it according to him but he did remove the hard drive later and "blew on it" (lol) but it didn't help. Any pointers?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

The hard drive may have failed, as do all of them sooner or later. To confirm this, you can test it with the drive maker's diagnostic software provided it is able to "see" the drive which, in view of what you've said, may prove to be a problem.

However, it's worth a try, nothing to lose by trying to test it. You will need to make a bootable CD which contains the drive maker's testing software for DOS. Download the appropriate ISO CD Image from here:
http/www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

If it's a WD drive, WD have removed the download link for their diagnostics CD Image (lord knows why) but there is a direct download link for it here: http/www.smartestcomputing.us.com/topic/63494-looking-for-western-digital-data-lifeguard-iso/

Create a CD from the ISO file with IMGBurn: http/www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/

Boot the laptop from the CD and run the long/extended test on the laptop's hard drive.