Hard Drive Recovery: Toshiba Laptop Failed Bearings
February 17, 2007 by Victoria Stankard
Filed under Data Recovery Solutions, Hard Drive How To's, Hard Drive Reviews
Toshiba laptop drives MK, GAS, or GAX most common reason for failure is due to the bearings seizing within the hard disk drive. The spindle motor and the bearings within the hard drive are getting stuck. This is one of the most common reasons for Toshiba laptop hard drive recovery.
When the motor seizes, the heads get parked, touching the platters, and this causes the drive to seem like it is not spinning, but if you listen close enough you will hear a faint sound of the motor sticking. This situation must resolved in a clean room . There is no way to recover the data without invasive hard drive recovery services.
If you are here you need Toshiba laptop data recovery, more than likely, internal hard disk repair. Call Toll Free: 1-866-418-3843 or fill out an online quote form.
Here are some facts about Toshiba’s newest laptop hard drives: The MK2035GSS, possesses the largest capacity of its class, 200GB, using only two platters which seems a little scary. While this drive has the capacity, it also gets hot! We all know what heat does to a hard drive, If you are unsure read this post: Speed Kills? With Hard Drives It’s Heat!
DTI Data has a lot of experience recovering Toshiba laptop hard drives. We have a very high success rate and charge a flat fee based upon the type of Toshiba laptop you have. Our services are no data no charge. If we can’t get your data back in a working condition, we don’t charge for hard drive recovery!
I understand that heat is detrimental to any type of electronic components. However, I beleive Toshiba Satellite laptops are properly ventilated. Unless, the fans blowing exhaust are blocked I believe these machines will run fine. The need for data recovery for Toshiba Satllite laptops that I have sold have been few. Furthermore, the few that have been sent out for recovery were recovered by your company. So, I believe Toshibe is putting out a good product.
I am constantly doing data recovery from Toshiba MK*GA* drives and I’m sick of them. Even nearly new drives are failing left and right. I hope Toshiba realizes that they are terrible at making hard drives and start using one of the main three (WD, Seagate, Hitachi) in their future laptops.
DjLizard, Thanks for the comment. We see just as many Toshiba drives as Hitachi, Fujitsu, or any others. Our success rate is in the 90% range. Feel free to contact us if you would like to partner with DTI, we have aggressive reseller plans.
http://www.dtidata.com/partner_program.htm
I’m on my second hard drive in my Toshiba Satellite A10, and it too has died due to bearings seizing from overheat. I guess I need a cooling pad, because this thing doesn’t ventilate well enough.
I keep getting messages when I try to recover saying HDD not found. I have very little money and cannot afford to run out and pay huge bucks for repairs yet the laptop is partially my income for my family and those I help with a place to stay. It seems my life is like Murphy’s Law. Especially right now. I need to find out the problem and then see if someone will help me fix it. I dont know what to do or where to turn. I need this laptop to work for me. It is a Toshiba A135 S2246 Satalite. What can I do?????
Catherine,
When a laptop hard drive is not recognized by the computer, that is about as bad as it can get. You will have to replace the hard drive and get your restore CD’s out so your system is back up and running.
If you were to get a USB Laptop hard drive converter you would see if your old hard drive could be recovered with software. We have a video on how to do it here:
Slave a Laptop Hard Drive To A USB Enclosure
I have a Toshiba L100 and due to there being alot of clutter on my laptop i got out my original product recovery cd to restore the system to factory settings. The only problem is there has been a problem with my dvd drive and the resovery cd does not work. Now, i could have delieted drivers or something so i thought the product recovery was a good idea. cd’s do work but not dvd’s. Is there anyway to restore the system without using the cd? Thankyou for any advice. – Confused
Karen,
What operating system are you using? There might be a couple of options for you that wouldn’t require you to use the DVD’s
So I dropped my laptop maybe about a two feet of the ground … i turned it on and now it’s at a screen that says no bootable device, and to insert boot disk and press any key….. what should i do?
Marissa,
That is usually a bad sign, it means that your hard drive is not being seen by the computer. The first thing you need to do is to see if another computer can access the hard drive. Do you have another computer around? Do you know how to remove your hard drive out of the laptop. What type of laptop is it? I can help you get the drive out with that information.
We have videos that show you how to slave a laptop hard drive to a USB case. If the drive can be recognized, you can get your data off of it. If it can’t you will need hard drive recovery. Call me at 866-418-3843 if you need help, or reply below.
Either way you will need to replace the hard drive if it isn’t seen by the computer. Is it still under warranty?
Lets see, it’s a toshiba. I have no idea about doing anything with hard drive. And I won’t know about if it’s still under warranty until I speak with my dad. So basically I am looking at getting a new hard drive? How much do those run these days? :[
Marissa,
Depending on the amount of storage you want, you can get new laptop hard drive for anywhere from $50 to $200. They are always running deals at places like newegg and bestbuy
Alright, well thanks for the help. Hopefully that will fix the problem. I’m guessing there will be a repair fee and all of that as well…. bummer. But thank you!
NP, have your Dad call us if you need any help!
I have a Toshiba 5205-S505. I have never had any problems with it, but when I tried to turn it on today, it got stuck at the Toshiba screen. The small console display in front says “HD1password=” and I have no idea what to do. From the research I have done online, it seems my hard disk has failed. Is there any way to fix this without replacing the hard drive??? Also, if I do have to replace it, is there any way to salvage/recover my files? Many of them are very important and I need them!! Please help!!!!
Thanks!
Sadia,
The fastest way to know how bad the situation is .. is to get your self an External Laptop Hard Drive chassis. They are sold at most major electronics retailers. I would then remove the hard drive from the laptop and use the USB chassis to connect it to you’re desktop machine. From here you should be able to gain access to the drive if it is not to far gone.
Actually, I tried that, connected as slave drive… i hear it trying to spin, but very weak, and spinning is not consistent. The computer I connected it to didn’t even recognize it as an inaccessible drive initially, after a while, it came up as an unformatted drive, then disappeared again after a short while. Last night I showed it to my computer guy and he says he thinks the arm is broken in the drive. This is a clean room repair from what I’ve been told, and could cost more than $700-800.
Sadia,
The slow spinning could be multiple problems, all of which are internal to the drive. So you computer guy is right it needs clean room time. You could give us a call and asked to talk with Dave he may be able to work something with you on price.. (not my area) I hope everything works out!
Most of the drive failures I’ve seen in laptops come down to two things when it’s not a software issue:
1) Dropping the drive.
2) Having a hot case.
The first one is easy to avoid for most people, but the second one is a killer… It’s not the drive, but the laptop that has a design issue. I won’t mention models/brands (namely because most do it), but the desktop replacements are notorious for this ‘feature’ called a ‘lap warmer’. heh
Well, the drive might be more sensitive to the overheating, but I’m not so sure about that one… They all are very close in physical layout and tend to use the same type of ICs.
I have a toshiba satellite A135 and it has gone out of control. When logging on the password box automatically shoots to the right with an undermined key stroke, and if you happen to get pass that stage all other pages will drop straight to the bottom and its extremely hard to get back to the top. Plus in safe mode a very loud alarm sounds until the laptop is closed. p.s. Vista is installed?
I was really disappointed with my Toshiba Satellite. No doubt, it has a excellent AMD Turion processor, and even a very nice graphics card (not integrated); but, these high-grade components generate a lot of heat, but the laptop has a low-grade cooling system. . . I have no doubt that the drive failure is at least somewhat induced by the massive heat this thing generates. Additionally, and I noticed this on most low-grade and even high-grade laptops, the heat exhaust is on the side on the console, and the vents often only go up half the side of the laptop console. . . which means that if you put the laptop on any surface that is not flat and hard, there’s a good chance it will overheat, and you’ll lose your work. . . which means, in the end, the laptop is just a crappy desktop . . . .lol.
If your laptop starts making a loud beeping sound than it is likely getting WAAAAAAAY too hot or there is a key held down on your keyboard. If it takes 5 minutes after being on all night, and it beeps even when you’re not at the laptop… then you certainly have a heat-related problem. This is most likely if the laptop is at least 6 months old. If it’s over 2 years old and you’ve never cleaned the vents, then I know it to be 99% likely. Good luck
Hey.
I am having a massive problem with my Toshiba L100. I can’t get it to turn on anymore, it will get to the windows screen and a box will pop up saying ‘the application failed to initialize (0xc0000005) Click OK to continue’ Then it is just a black screen. I have tried to boot in safe mode but it does the same thing. Now my goal is to restore it to factory settings, however, another problem arises, my CD/DVD drive doesn’t work so I cant use the Recovery CD. Hopefully someone can help before I go mental and throw it out of the window!
Thanks
Monique,
Do you have data on there you want to keep? If so do not run the restore. Feel free to call us at 727-251-2058 and we can help
I have a toshiba hard disk which i took out of a toshiba laptop and fixed into an external hard disk case. After my first attempt to recover my data from the disk, it can be recognized as a usb mass storage disk but windows says it cannot be accessed.Please help me.
Hello,
I have just restored my Toshiba L300 to its factory state after it failed to boot several times (even is safe mode- I tried everything but it would freeze on boot and go no further). All seems to be fine except that it is now very slow, seems to be getting stuck constantly, i.e. will type and letters will not appear 2 to 3 seconds later. In addition, watching vidoes on cnn, you tube etc for eg which used to be smooth with 0 glitches is now impossible as video keeps getting stuck etc. I can verify that this is not an internet issue.
Any idea what the cause is and what I can do to fix it? I’ve had the laptop for about 5 months so was really not expecting problems so early on.
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks
I managed to recover my daughters data from a MK3021GAS drive that had failed. It was making some very funny groaning noises, but I connected it to an adapter to my main desktop machine and mounted it upside down.
It must have taken the stress off the bearings as it recovered everything perectly.
Just thought I’d share that with you.
Sounds like you know what to do to get a hard drive running? I have a questions. How would I get training to learn to repair and restore hard drives? I’ve worked as a deployment consultant and before that it was mainframes. i also worked as a domain admin. But I’m getting older now and looking for work I can do at home. It appears as though a clean room or clean cube can be set up right in a small space of a garage or something of the like.
I would appreicate any tips on this matter.
I have a Toshiba Satellite. I am getting a massage: Windows could not start b/c the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system
I am trying to load the recovery CD but it doesn’t do a thing! anything I try itgoes always to the same message above.
Help!
Thanks.
Chris