Asus laptop hard drive question

I'm used to having a panel to open up to get to these things. Asus really annoyed me with this one.

It's a UX50V. It looks like I'm left disassembling the dang thing, which is a stupid design. All I want to do is get at the hard drive. I fear it may be failing.

If anyone knows of a guide for this thing, because the web site seems to be pretty much without self help when it comes to the hard drive, it would be much appreciated. If I'm missing something I would like to know, and I want the best way to get to the drive.

Thanks,

Troy

reply to post by cybertroy


Hmm it looks like you have to take the whole case apart

From the web

1. Lay your notebook upside down on a soft surface
2. Remove all the screws that hold the Bottom Cover in place
3. Pop off the bottom cover
4. You'll see your HD's
5. Remove 4 screws holding the HD securing rack in your Notebook
6. Carefully pull on the "Ribbon" to slide out the drive
7. Remove the screws securing your HD to the HD Securing Rack
8. Secure new HD in to the HD Securing Rack
9. Slide new HD / Rack assembly back into place
10 Re-install all screws

link

if you want to test the hard drive to see if it is failing...download Parted Magic here: Parted Magic 5.10.

Burn it to a CD/DVD, put that disc in the DVD drive of your laptop, boot off it (press F10 or F12 or whatever F key it is to select a boot menu on your ASUS laptop at startup, or if that option is not available, go into the BIOS and change the boot order so your laptop boots to the DVD drive first, then the hard drive). After Parted Magic loads up, double-click the "Smart Control" icon on the Parted Magic desktop, double-click the icon for your hard drive...then check for errors in the "Error Log" tab (there should be zero on a perfectly health drive), look for any flagged (red) health tags in the "attributes" tab, especially reallocated sectors and current pending/reallocated sector count (these should also be zero on perfectly healthy drive) and if you want to test the drive, select the "Perform Tests" tab and run an extended self-test (this will do a read-test over the entire surface of the drive looking for spots it can't read from). If it fails the test with a read failure, its probably time to replace the drive and if you need data off it, take it to a computer service store (I work at one).

Originally posted by brent81
if you want to test the hard drive to see if it is failing...download Parted Magic here: Parted Magic 5.10.

Burn it to a CD/DVD, put that disc in the DVD drive of your laptop, boot off it (press F10 or F12 or whatever F key it is to select a boot menu on your ASUS laptop at startup, or if that option is not available, go into the BIOS and change the boot order so your laptop boots to the DVD drive first, then the hard drive). After Parted Magic loads up, double-click the "Smart Control" icon on the Parted Magic desktop, double-click the icon for your hard drive...then check for errors in the "Error Log" tab (there should be zero on a perfectly health drive), look for any flagged (red) health tags in the "attributes" tab, especially reallocated sectors and current pending/reallocated sector count (these should also be zero on perfectly healthy drive) and if you want to test the drive, select the "Perform Tests" tab and run an extended self-test (this will do a read-test over the entire surface of the drive looking for spots it can't read from). If it fails the test with a read failure, its probably time to replace the drive and if you need data off it, take it to a computer service store (I work at one).

edit on 9-4-2011 by brent81 because: (no reason given)

I'd Have to agree, its always useful to run a few diagnostics tools...

I tend to use ISOW Multiboot ( eqisow.org... )

Its a laptop diagnostics repairs disc that runs a series of tools, including a vista PE environment and has the GeekSquad MRI disk included (yes im a Geek over in the uk), Also has BackTrack 4 (saw) Linux (Live Edition) with WiFi cracking applications installed

Thank you folks for your help and comments. I guess I'm going to have to dive in to get to it.

I tried multiple programs to test the hard drive, but none worked. I'm running a test on the memory, so far it seems ok. I just can't understand a design like this. The hard drive is one of the things that fails the most, and you have to disassemble the machine to get to it. I can't get to the memory modules either, without taking it apart. It's a pretty laptop, but a stupid design in this respect.

Is this so you have to take it to a shop, or the Geek Squad to repair it? It's a Best Buy specific model, even on the Asus site it mentions a Best Buy model, and a non Best Buy model. A regular person will probably be stuck on this thing. I'm shaking my head in disapproval on this. Three things that need quick access on a laptop, CMOS battery, memory slots, battery, and hard drive. The battery is the one thing they got right. Why didn't they make the other things more easily accessible? I mean they have a battery under there that can be removed in seconds, but no panels for things like the hard drive?

Troy