Fujitsu MHU2100 laptop drive failure

[cl999]

Coffee was spilled on the laptop keyboard. When I opened it up to
clean, I found coffee between the harddrive carrier and the drive PCB.
After everything was put back, the computer won't boot. The drive
wasn't recognized in BIOS. I put it in a USB external enclosure, and
Windows XP didn't recognize it either. The drive was working after the
spill prior to shutdown.

I thought the problem may be electrical as opposed to physical since
it was working great, didn't make any weird noises, and wasn't
dropped. So I got a replacement PCB off Ebay from the same model
drive. It arrived today and there is no improvement. The drive spins
up and does nothing. In the USB enclosure, the data transfer light
blinks a few times when plugged in, then the light goes off (it stays
on with a good drive). My question is does this kind of symptom sound
like physical damage and I should send it in for recovery, or should I
try another PCB since there was no guarantee the "new" PCB was good.
The seller has guarantee against DOA and was not sold as-is, but I
thought I'd ask the experts here before spending the big bucks for
recovery.

 

[Jesco Lincke]

Coffee was spilled on the laptop keyboard. When I opened it up to
clean, I found coffee between the harddrive carrier and the drive PCB.
After everything was put back, the computer won't boot. The drive
wasn't recognized in BIOS. I put it in a USB external enclosure, and
Windows XP didn't recognize it either. The drive was working after the
spill prior to shutdown.

I thought the problem may be electrical as opposed to physical since
it was working great, didn't make any weird noises, and wasn't
dropped. So I got a replacement PCB off Ebay from the same model
drive. It arrived today and there is no improvement. The drive spins
up and does nothing. In the USB enclosure, the data transfer light
blinks a few times when plugged in, then the light goes off (it stays
on with a good drive). My question is does this kind of symptom sound
like physical damage and I should send it in for recovery, or should I
try another PCB since there was no guarantee the "new" PCB was good.
The seller has guarantee against DOA and was not sold as-is, but I
thought I'd ask the experts here before spending the big bucks for
recovery.

I'll pass this on to you gently, since others here might be less restrained:
You wouldn't be worrying about spending big bucks on recovery, had you
previously spent little bucks and a little time on backup...

Back to the technical issue...

 

[Arno Wagner]

Coffee was spilled on the laptop keyboard. When I opened it up to
clean, I found coffee between the harddrive carrier and the drive PCB.
After everything was put back, the computer won't boot. The drive
wasn't recognized in BIOS. I put it in a USB external enclosure, and
Windows XP didn't recognize it either. The drive was working after the
spill prior to shutdown.

I thought the problem may be electrical as opposed to physical since
it was working great, didn't make any weird noises, and wasn't
dropped. So I got a replacement PCB off Ebay from the same model
drive. It arrived today and there is no improvement. The drive spins
up and does nothing. In the USB enclosure, the data transfer light
blinks a few times when plugged in, then the light goes off (it stays
on with a good drive). My question is does this kind of symptom sound
like physical damage and I should send it in for recovery, or should I
try another PCB since there was no guarantee the "new" PCB was good.
The seller has guarantee against DOA and was not sold as-is, but I
thought I'd ask the experts here before spending the big bucks for
recovery.

First, get some real diagnostics. "does nothing" does not cut it.
Is it found? What is its SMART status? Any boot-up messages
about the drive when booting Linux (e.g. Knoppix from a CD)?

An then, backup, this elusive thing so overlooked in normal
times, so desparately needed occasionally...

Arno

 

[cl999]

Well, it wasn't my computer and I didn't spill the coffee, but I take
care of the computers in the house so it's partly my fault. The last
backup was about 1 year ago.

As for diagnostics, it's not recognized in BIOS at all. On the HP
BIOS, there is a "HDD Self-test" option and its' not recognized there
either. That is why I figured it was an electrical problem and not a
physical problem. Haven't tried the LINUX route. I occasionally use
Puppy (not on that computer) I suppose I could try that.

Just called Ontrack, they now have a $495 photo recovery option. That
is regardless of method required for recovery. Must better than tha
$1000 I was expecting. Pretty smart business move on their part
considering how many home users mostly care about pictures and don't
backup.