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Dell Vostro: msg: hard drive - no hard drive detected

I have a Dell Vostro notebook, and it started showing a "No Hard Drive Detected" message yesterday.  When I turn the system on, the Win OS comes up, but after I enter my password, and it starts, it immediately goes either blank, or shows the message regarding the HD.  I have ran the on-board diagnostics from Dell, and everything checks out, except the HD is not found.  Not sure if the HD is completely dead, as I can still log in, if only temporarily.  Does anyone have any suggestions? Or is the HD just gone, and needs to be replaced?

Thanks in advance.

aj85
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John
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Probably (most likely) it is on the way out. You can remove the hard drive, put it in a carrier and see if you can read it on another machine. See if you can recover data you need).

Then replace the drive and reinstall the OS.

What OS?  If Windows 7, consider just replacing the machine with a Windows 10 machine.
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Strange, how does it show to you Windows screen if no HDD is detected?
Did you drop it recently? And does BIOS see the HDD?
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aj85

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Hello John,

It is running Win 7 professional.  When I start the computer I get the Dell splash, then windows starts and request my password.  I enter the password, and the HD light begins to flash, then abruptly the system restarts, and I get a message regarding the HD not being found.

Regards,

aj85
I am pretty sure it has drive errors causing the issue. It may have even have had a head crash. I would make it a priority to only remove it and recover what data you can.
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Hello Noxcho,

I agree, but that is what is occurring.  I have not dropped the machine or anything, so I am not sure how windows is starting, and the HD is not being recognized.

Regards,

aj85
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Hello John,

Understood.  Please advise on what steps are needed to recover what data I can before it is completely gone.

Regards,
aj85
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Hello John,

Okay I will have to acquire a carrier with a USB connection.  The data is valuable, but I may just format and start again, as I am sure the recovery services are going to be expensive..  I will get back to you shortly with the results.

Regards,

aj85
Thank you. Please let us know how you proceed.
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You are welcome, I will do so.  Thanks.
"I may just format and start again"
I would be hesitant to do that without first running thorough diagnostics on the drive.  It sounds as if you have a hardware error with the drive.  I would not expect that a software error on the drive would cause it to not be detected after experiencing the error.
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Hello CompProbSolv,

Understood, I will take that advise before formatting.

Regards,

aj85
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Hello garycase,

Noted, I will try this as well.

Regards,

aj85
The Windows is starting from HDD normally so if the drive has problems then it will not start at all. Or your system is starting from some media and not from HDD.
If the drive has a bad spot, it could start and then stop which is what is happening.
Try re seating the hard drive
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Or there is a ransomware virus which encrypted the drive
.
"... Or there is a ransomware virus which encrypted the drive " ==>  VERY unlikely in this case.   A Ransomware would let the system boot; then display the message to collect the ransom :-)
I have seen recently how one of my colleagues opened a word document received per email and her PC got encrypted HDD. And there was no chance to login into Windows. A Windows98 like password/login screen and message - pay or loose.
But at least a screen that showed the ransom demand => that was my point ... it wouldn't completely refuse to boot .. it would as a minimum display the ransom screen.
They develop further gary )))
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Hello All,

First let me say thank you to everyone who has offered possible solutions.  I am still trying them as we speak. : )  Now with that said, I am now trying the suggestion from Nobus.

Nobus, I am going to create the bootable CD and go through the steps you have outlined, and will report back to all after they are completed.  

@noxcho: As for ransomware, I concur with Gary, as I do not think that is what has happened here, although you are correct in that they are always evolving.  However, I not receive any extortion messages on the screen, and certainly hope not to see any. : )

Again thanks all.

Regards,

aj85
it was just my thinking loudly :)
Yes, the drive must be tested in any case.
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All,

Here is an update.  I have not started the steps from nobus yet, but it would seem that my HDD is being recognized by the notebook now, briefly.  When I try logging in, it shows the Windows welcome screen, after entering my password with the continual circle, then shows the blue screens occurs with a "memory dump" and it reboots.  However, the HDD is listed in the diagnostics now, where it was not before.  Is it possible that the connection to the HD is bad that is causing these issues?  Just wondering.

Regards,

aj85
just test disk and ram, to be sure about the basic parts, then you have something to start from
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Hello All,

I ran the Win diagnostics tool, which took several hours, and now the attached image shows the steps that are being initiated by CHKDSK.  It has taken a very long time to complete, but it does see the C drive, so I am hoping that I will be able to pull off the information soon....

Fingers are crossed...
20170220_171945.jpg
At least there is no bad sector detected on C drive.
It doesn't look on that screenshot that it has scanned for bad sectors yet.  That would be a good diagnostic.
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Hello All,

Progress is being made!  With your help, I managed to get the system back up in Safe Mode, but now I cannot run Regedit on any windows commands it seems.  In addition, when I start windows up in non-safe mode, my username and password are not recognized and I get following message:

"the user profile service failed the logon win7"

However is safe mode, I can see that all of my files and data are present, but I cannot do anything in windows it seems.  Images attached.

Regards,

aj85
20170220_183649.jpg
20170220_184024.jpg
Have you run any of the diagnostics on the hard drive that have been recommended?  If your hard drive is failing, then proceeding further with it (other than to copy from it) is unwise.
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Agreed.  However, I can see the data in safe mode, but cannot offload it yet, as I cannot get the windows explorer or anything else to work.  To this point I have tried several suggested solutions.
Keep in mind that IF the hard drive is failing (this may well be the case but isn't certain from what you've reported) the longer you work on it, the greater the chance that it fails more substantially and recovery becomes impractical or very expensive.

I'd strongly suggest booting from a different device (other hard drive, bootable CD/DVD or USB stick, etc.) and copying off any data you don't want to lose.  If you don't care about any of the data that is on the drive, you can ignore these comments.
yes - backup your data first
you can also try the last known good when booting with the F8 key

and look in my long post how i handle disk problems too - very helpful info  there!
Since you can boot to Safe Mode it's likely that the primary issue is something is corrupted in the driver stack that's loading in a "normal" boot => this could be from an issue with the OS, or it could be that you have a failing hard drive and some of the Windows components are corrupted on the drive.

In either event, the #1 thing I'd do at this point is be sure you have CURRENT BACKUPS of all of your data.   If you don't have that, and need to extract your data from the hard drive; I would (a) remove the drive from the laptop;  (b) connect it to another system either via a SATA port or using a USB bridge device; and (c) copy all of your data from the disk to another location [a disk on the other system;  an external hard drive;  etc.]

THEN you can continue troubleshooting to see if you can get the disk working okay; although personally I'd just replace it (preferably with an SSD).
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Hello All,

First let me say a giant "Thank You!" to all of you for posting your suggestions and expertise.  I was finally successful in getting my data backed-up, and was able to restore the Windows OS on the machine from all of your professional advise.  It was a definitely a HDD hardware issue, and I have ordered a replacement drive to solve the problem for the long-term, or until there is another HDD failure.  Lol  

Experts Exchange is a great place of knowledge, with true professionals, and I wish that I could award you all 1000 points each for helping me with this.  Unfortunately I cannot, : (, but I am going to aware everyone points, as this was a collective effort, and again greatly appreciated.

Regards,
aj85
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Excellent solutions from everyone.
We are glad we could help
tx for feedback
if you want  - use the HDDREGENERATOR - it has helped me to recover - and fix many drives; but it's not free
you can run the scan - and see if it finds and fixes one sector - then buy it
http://www.dposoft.net/hdd.html
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You are welcome nobus, and thanks for the link, I will definitely download it.

Regards,
aj85