wiped hard drive

User in my company is using IBM R30 laptop. He comes in today to work and opens up his computer. He tries to trun it on and it gives him a message no operating system found press any key to reboot.

In brief I take the computer and can't do a Windows 2000 repair, as it cant find Win2k on the computer. I pretty much can't do anything and get into a dos prompt to take a look at the contents of c. There are none. So, I run the IBM Recovery and reinstall everything. Pretty much cut and dry.

My question is: After interrogating him, I understand what happened to be this: He took his computer home to work on a report. He never powered down. He left it on all night and in the morning put it in it's carry case, still powered up. He came to work and passed through security which includes a metal detector. He then got to his desk and opened up his laptop to find no OS.

I remember reading something about how metal detectors and magnets can only wipe hard drives, if the computer is powered on. I am trying to figure out how his hard drive got wiped. Is the metal detector a real possibility? Is it more likely to be an IBM disk failure and I should send the laptop to IBM (under warranty)?

Thanks:confused:

Well if they are like the ones at the airports then no...but then again those are just x-rays right? I'm not sure that is how it works though...could be wrong. When you say you tried to see the C: at the DOS prompt, were you using any software to see an NTFS partiion? Or was it formatted to FAT32. Cause if you didn't have any software and it was NTFS, then you won't see the drive cause DOS can't read NTFS natively. I would think it's more along the lines of he messed up the OS to the point where you couldn't do a repair...how? Who knows!

That I know. It is Fat32. It gave an error about the disk contents (dont remember what it said exactly).

I seem to remember reading an article that said normally the xray mmachine won't damage a hard disk. The exception is if the computer was turned on and the articles warning was to make sure you turn off your laptop when going through security in the airport.

I am trying to find out if that is valid, as that would explain what this user experienced..

Well I had mine on at the airport, even through the scan...and no data loss here!

Before you do anything drastic, shut down the laptop, remove the hard drive and reinsert it. Sometimes a shock or droppping a lappy like that will loosen the hdd connection.

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Originally posted by Lt. Cmdr. DaTaMan
Before you do anything drastic, shut down the laptop, remove the hard drive and reinsert it. Sometimes a shock or droppping a lappy like that will loosen the hdd connection.

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too late. I already ran the recovery program of IBM.

Actually the fact that the recovery program worked without my having followed your suggestion indicates that jolting the hdd back in properly would not have helped.

Thanks anyway.

Power up the lappy and walk through the metal detector and see if anything happens.

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Originally posted by Radical Dreamer
Power up the lappy and walk through the metal detector and see if anything happens.

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Great idea after I spent half the day reinstalling everything so he can get back to work!! :)