Lenovo Laptop Hard Drive Issues
Lenovo Laptop Hard Drive Issues
Hello, I experienced an issue with my Lenovo laptop where the screen wouldn't display on the TV when connected via HDMI. After removing the screen and disconnecting the cable, it worked again, but instead of the usual Windows interface, I saw a different screen. This repeated multiple times, suggesting something beyond a simple OS problem. I tried restarting and using System Restore, but encountered errors each time. Eventually, I created a Windows USB drive and booted from it, which functioned properly. However, shortly after, I faced another blue screen within hours of use. After rebooting, the system would lock me out, then return to recovery mode. Eventually, I removed the hard drive, reinstalled Windows, and tried using a Ventoy USB with an Ubuntu ISO. This time, after selecting the correct drives, I managed to boot successfully. Despite these efforts, I still encountered persistent issues—my drive was missing, and mounting errors kept appearing. I became increasingly frustrated, wondering if the laptop was beyond repair. Eventually, I decided to give it another chance, but the uncertainty remained about whether the hardware was truly damaged or just a temporary glitch.
It seems like a mechanical breakdown. The initial error was sticking with a typical machine that’s very unreliable, which isn’t expected for a mass-produced item. It would be better to perform smart diagnostics on the drive—it likely has some hidden issues.
Apologies for missing a reply—I fell asleep. I'm not sure if I did everything right. I typed "wmic disk drive get status" and it returned "Status OK OK." Also, using Notepad to open File Explorer, I navigated to the drives list on Local Disk C: Here are some BIOS details. Thanks for the numerous changes; I just attempted a CHKDSK and found it mentioned "RAW" as the file system type. "CHKDSK isn't available for RAW drives." Got another update. In Windows Setup, no drives appeared. After exiting and opening Command Prompt, I ran diskpart and listed disks. Then I executed CHKDSK (CHKDSK c: /f) and it reported the file system as NTFS. The first NTFS boot sector was unreadable or corrupt. The second one worked better. All NTFS sectors were unreadable or damaged. Can't proceed. Also, DISKPART lists it as NTFS, but CHKDSK says RAW."
Okay, holy shit. GROUND BREAKING progress right here. So after a few moments I discovered that the drives InterfaceType was different than the SATA controller type. So I went in the BIOS and changed the controller type to IDE. And when going to install Windows, it didn't give me the error(yet) I'm now at 93%. on getting files ready for installation. I'll update if it actually installs windows It installed. Holy shit. Can you tell me how the hell one bios setting fixed the whole thing? Another edit, So it fully installed windows, but I did have to skip OOBE as it was so slow.. But it's fully functional, I'm not spotting any bugs or blue screens, yet. I'm gonna go take a shower, and when I come back I'll see if its blue screened. Okay so, it fully worked, and so I gave the drive a few scans in CrystalDiskInfo and HDDScan and they both came up with one caution, and that was the reallocated sector count. Other than that, it was all blue. Drive is in working condition, and I don't plan to update unless it forces me to. Other than that, I ran a game on the thing and I didn't get any blue screens, it blue screened before because the RAM was at it's limit, or something like that. But I'm still wondering why in the world changing the SATA controller type to Compatible fixed the issue with Windows not installing. Well, either way I got it working, I'd say 12 months from now it'll actually start getting slower and start showing size of death. Thank you for your help!
So... it wasn't as durable as I imagined. Interestingly, it performed the same actions previously, but only took more time. One morning I was operating normally until suddenly it became extremely sluggish. I restarted it, then it switched to Windows as expected, but displayed a warning: "Getting Windows ready Please do not turn your PC off." It then said "Updating," restarted, and went back to Windows. This time it blue-screened during the install. Around 1 AM I powered it down and fell asleep. The next day I turned it on and it still lagged heavily. I considered updating it myself. I opened Windows Update, downloaded the patches, left for a drink, and came back to find a BSOD popping up. I shut it off and restarted. Then it booted again, but remained very slow. I tried updating it once more, kept it running, and switched off the monitor. While talking to a friend, it became noticeably noisy—like a PS4. When I switched it back on, I noticed the screen was distorted, almost as if it showed error codes. I powered it down completely. The following morning I restarted it, but it was still extremely slow. Eventually, I downloaded updates again. While chatting with someone, the system started making an unusually loud sound. The monitor flickered to a blank state, displaying unclear text like "DATA_READ_???????_ERROR." It didn’t even restart properly; I had to shut it off myself. After a while, it booted back up, but remained sluggish. I checked the drive status in CMD and saw "Status Pred Fail." Then I ran CHKDSK on C: and it scanned fine this time. But later it reported "No Instance(s) Found," which made me suspect data loss. I tried booting from a USB, but it kept failing to load properly. Eventually, after several attempts, the drive vanished entirely, leaving only the recovery environment. I stayed up late trying fixes, and by morning it was still acting oddly. The issue repeated itself twice, suggesting a pattern rather than a one-off glitch. After installing Windows, it insisted on requiring a reboot before being stable. It felt like something was seriously wrong—possibly a hardware fault or persistent error. I kept wondering why this exact problem kept happening.
Drives may fail due to the new sector count allocation. If this is incorrect, the drive won't be dependable even if it seems operational. In your situation, the drive is probably working hard to survive while life tries to proceed normally. It’s likely time to replace the drive.