[PLUG] A little off-topic- potential dead disk controller in notebook

[Adam Zion <azion1995@gmail.com>]

A customer's notebook suffered a major hardware + software failure, +
he was unable to boot to retrieve any data from it. Fortunately, I was
able to boot w/an Ubuntu LiveCD + recover the data, and I suggested
that he purchase a new notebook. I told him I'd keep the old notebook
+ try to resurrect it; if I can, great, if not, I'll do a secure wipe
of the HD + recycle it.

I had thought that the hard drive was the problem. But, even when I
remove it, I still get the same symptom: the drive active lite blinks,
as does the CD-ROM drive light. I'm reformatting the HD right now, and
seeing if, by some strange chance, that helps. But I really suspect
it's a physical problem w/the controller.

Is there any way that I could check this beyond deducing from
behavior? I did a Google search about this error on this notebook-
Acer TravelMate 4200- w/o success.

Thx,
-Z

-- 
Adam+Zion, MCSE+I, Registered Linux User #471910
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