Possible HDD issue, or worse.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Spock96, Apr 23, 2013.

  1. Spock96

    Spock96 Major Geek 'Spocky'

    Good Evening everyone,

    I was asked to look at a Toshiba Satellite yesterday that was said it would not boot. I received said machine earlier today and started troubleshooting it. If I try to boot into regular Windows it comes to the starting Windows screen and just sits there hitting the hard drive, tried to boot into safe mode, but it starts loading the files and then just sits there again hitting the hard drive. At start-up it gives an option for a start-up repair if I click that it will load then just sit at a black screen with my mouse showing.
    I was researching this and came across a post on the Toshiba boards with the same type of problem and it was said it could either be that the hard drive could be failing or it could be a deeper problem possibly the motherboard.
    I had assumed from the beginning that it could very well be the hard drive, but I don't know how to make that a certainty so I can inform them of what their next step should be since I can not access the machine at all.
    Any and all reply's greatly welcomed.

    Thank you have a great evening.
    Spock96
     
  2. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    The easiest route is to boot from a Live Linux DVD. That still requires the computer to function but not the hard drive.
     
  3. Spock96

    Spock96 Major Geek 'Spocky'

    With doing that, can I still run diagnostics on the hard drive?
    I've only ever used that method to pull files from the drive.
     
  4. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

  5. Spock96

    Spock96 Major Geek 'Spocky'


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