Dell 3521 hard disk suddenly not recognized

[computerdoc]

When booting it comes up with pxe-e61:media test failure, check cable.

When I look at the bios, it says hard disk not detected. I loaded opimized bios by pressing f9 but it didn't help.

I ran Dell diagnostics and it said no hard disk detected. I removed and reinstalled the hard drive but it didn't help. Is there any other option at this point besides replacing the hard drive?

 

[GTP]

pxe-e61:media test failure, check cable

Make sure you have NO OTHER disks, USB KEYS plugged in. Check the boot order in BIOS. Turn off PXE options in the BIOS.
Make sure AHCI is on in Bios.
Try another HDD. Try booting to a Linux live environment and see if it detects the HDD.

 

[MichaelEC]

And try booting the hard drive in another system.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Hmmm, if it's not detected in the BIOS, time to find out if the data is worth sending it to a data recovery specialist for assessment. The more you try this and that, the less chance of recovering the data.

 

[lcoughey]

The first thing that comes to my mind is what are you trying to diagnose? The hard drive or the system? As the hard drive contains the only thing on the system that cannot be replaced, you need to protect it from getting worse.

You may want to reference this guide - https://www.technibble.com/forums/resources/how-to-triage-a-hard-drive.17/

On a side note. I went to your website to see where you were located and it doesn't even show what country you are located in.

 

[GTP]

The first thing that comes to my mind is what are you trying to diagnose? The hard drive or the system? As the hard drive contains the only thing on the system that cannot be replaced, you need to protect it from getting worse.

You may want to reference this guide - https://www.technibble.com/forums/resources/how-to-triage-a-hard-drive.17/

On a side note. I went to your website to see where you were located and it doesn't even show what country you are located in.

I think they are in Dallas, Texas.
https://whois.domaintools.com/askthecomputerdoc.com

 

[computerdoc]

Barcelona,

"Make sure you have NO OTHER disks, USB KEYS plugged in. Check the boot order in BIOS. Turn off PXE options in the BIOS.
Make sure AHCI is on in Bios.
Try another HDD. Try booting to a Linux live environment and see if it detects the HDD"

There were no other disks or usbs connected. The hard disk was not detected so it wasn't in the boot order. AHCI was on in the Bios. I tried a linux boot and the drive was not detected.

Larry Sabo,

I'm trying to be as non intrusive to the disk as possible.

lcoughey,

I'm in Rockland country in New York. Thanks for the link to the triage process.

At this point, I removed the drive and I am going to try a restore to a new drive from Macrium Reflect and Crashplan. If it comes up incomplete, I'll have to send the bad drive to $300 repair.

 

[mr m]

Did you swap in a known good HDD/SDD as Barcelona stated?

I just had a similar issue with a laptop where the UEFI didn't detect the SDD. I swapped in a brand new HDD and it still wasn't seen. I swapped out the cable between the mobo and drive and that cured it although I think the laptop you are working on has the SATA connector soldered to the mobo.

You should swap in a working drive to verify the mobo or cable (if that system uses one) is operational before you try to create an image or farm it out.

 

[computerdoc]

Good idea. I will do that.

 

[computerdoc]

I replaced the hard drive and restored from Macrium. I am now restoring the rest from Crashplan. However, the Crashplan guy told me that they don't backup applications. They're more into pictures and documents and the like.That somewhat limits the utility of online backup.

 

[Cody Shepherd]

I think most backup engineers assume the client has keys/cds to reinstall programs. Local save data should be a part of the backup though (granted, I have little experience in this department). What percentage of the drive was recovered in the end?

 

[computerdoc]

I don't think it can be assumed that users have backup keys and/or cds to restore their systems.. A complete backup will insure integrity if done often enough and properly. I assumed that whatever the full backup didn't cover would be covered by the online backup. However, I was told by the Crashplan support agent that they target documents and pictures and not applications. Additionally, their recovery options are lacking because you can either restore a copy without overwriting whatever you have or you can choose to overwrite with their latest copy but there is no logic not to override whatever is on the disk that is dated later than the backup even though they keep a copy of what was there originally.

The system was fully restored to the state it was in during April. I am sending the original disk in to get some of the data from April till now which was not captured by Crashplan. Crashplan has to be watched to make sure its running or the backups will be totally out of date.