I have an aging sony PCG-FX215 which developed
a "knock" sound from the hard drive, and quickly
started to fail. I booted it a souple of subsequent
times to pull off some latest changes, but it quickly
failed.

My questions are:

Is this surely a problem with the drive?

If so can I or someone else repair it? This question
may be can someone here tell me what is likely the
problem?

Since, I do not use this laptop as a laptop. Is there a
way to connect from its internal IDE to an external
IDE drive?

barry

Barry <barryg (AT) highstream (DOT) net> wrote

Yes, the 'knock' is likely the drive recalibrating.

Probably not.

The hard drive has likely died.

Not guaranteed tho, its possible the laptop cant
power the drive properly for some other reason etc.

Nope, you need to replace the drive if it died.

In article <12cnehub538c4 (AT) corp (DOT) supernews.com>, "Barry"
<barryg (AT) highstream (DOT) net> wrote:

The knock sound could be a "seek to track 0".
It means the drive is in trouble. You should
back up the data as soon as possible.

If the drive is still within the warranty period,
you get warranty service. The drive will be replaced
with a tested refurb. If that capacity of drive is
no longer offered, you might even get a new one.

There is no way to repair it - it could be the magnetic
layer on the platters which is damaged. It would cost
10x more than the replacement value of the drive, to
open up the HDA. Drives are throwaway, like toilet paper.

For external storage, a laptop can be connected to an
external drive enclosure with a USB interface. If the
laptop only has USB 1.1, this will be a terribly slow
option, but if you are making a backup copy, it is better
than nothing.

A new hard drive can be placed inside the laptop. Considering
the cost of repair, it would be cheaper to do this yourself.
Using an search engine, search for "PCG-FX215 disassembly".

http://www.myplc.com/sony/laptop_dis..._processor.htm
(The hard drive is in the cage in the center of the picture.)
http://www.myplc.com/sony/images/hea..._drive_dvd.jpg

Since it appears to be reasonably easy to take apart,
a repair shop should not be charging more than one hour
labor plus the cost of a new drive. Price out disk drives
before you go to such a shop, to get some idea for what the
final repair bill would be.

The replacement drive should be one with the same characteristics.
If the old one was 4200RPM, then to run at the same temperature,
the new one should be low powered as well. It is possible the
capacities of the new ones will be a lot bigger than the old one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ice=&maxPrice=

In terms of using an external enclosure to hold the dying hard
drive, there are some enclosures here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e= &maxPrice=

Note that those enclosures do not have an external power adapter
included. That means the hard drive must have a power consumption
of less than 2.5W (5V @ 500mA). Basically, you open the enclosure
and plug the 44 pin connector of the enclosure, to the 2.5" hard
drive pulled from the laptop. Then, plug the enclosure via a USB
cable, to another computer. Assuming the drive still has enough
life in it, to get the files off.

Paul

"Barry" <barryg (AT) highstream (DOT) net> wrote

And sometimes you just chuck one :-) thank you for the answers.