I thought this would be the most appropriate place to post since there isn't a computer subforum.


I got a new USB GPS antenna for my laptop to start using in my car. I loaded Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 and installed the GPS antenna with no problems.

Without even thinking about it, I set my laptop down right on top of the receiver which has a magnet in it to stick to your car's rooftop. It completely escaped my mind to keep the computer away from the magnet. The screen didn't flicker or just go out all of a sudden or turn any weird colors or anything like that. I went to Restart my laptop and it started making a funny noise and wouldn't turn off so I had to hold down the power button to get it to turn off. Then I tried to turn it back on and it made the same weird noise and just sat at a black screen (there was a blinking cursor top left corner of the screen) until it finally said Cannot find Operating System.

Did I completely fry the hard drive or just erase everything off of it? It's not too bad if I erased everything b/c I do most of my school work on my desktop and I even transfer stuff from my laptop right over to the desktop so I didn't lose too much data, I'm just worried about the hard drive still working. I can get Windows XP for free through my school so it's not problem loading a new OS, I just want to know if the hard drive will work at all.





CLIFF NOTES:
- Got a new USB GPS antenna for laptop
- Put laptop too close to magnet on GPS antenna
- Computer making a weird noise and can't find Operating System
- Did I ruin the HD or just erase everything on it?

 

You can try to take the drive out and connect it to a desktop as the second drive. They make an adapter you can get...

 

And that will tell me if it's just the hard drive?
If it doesn't work in the desktop then it's the HD but if it does work, then it is something else?

 

It takes a much stronger magnet than what that antenna has to completely erase the data on your hard drive. HOWEVER, it probably is strong enough to disturb a few bits here and there on the platters and it was enough to corrupt the boot sector. Hence why your machine will not boot. The weird noise is probably the result of the drive heads being told move a lot more than usual. No big deal, the drive itself more than likely just fine. Physically hard drives are pretty tough.

My suggestion is to reload your operation system. If you have important data on your hard drive then you may want to boot your laptop via a live CD linux distro and copy it off to an external hard drive, or another computer. If you are uncomfortable doing that then take your laptop to a local computer shop.

CanopyFlyer

 

It will help you get your data...

 

Thanks for the input guys.


I'm not really worried about the data on the drive. All the important stuff is already backed up onto my desktop. I'm going to take it up to my computer guy and see what he can do with it.

 

Bump b/c I might need help installing the OS (got a new HD).