Harddrive crash, is this my fault?

Hi, my friend asked me to see why their camera wasn't working on windows xp so I went to settings, control panel, scanners and cameras. I clicked on camera installation wizard, chose the camera from the drop down menu but then jumped the gun a little and instead of plugging in the camera, I selected comunications port com1 and clicked next.

It said your software is now installed and then rebooted , but within a few seconds began rebooting over and over again. I tried switching off and back on several times but it just kept rebooting.

They then called out a repair guy who they bought the computer from and he decided he would have to take it away as something was wrong with the settings. He then rang to inform them he would have to reinstall windows. He then rang again to say it would be double the estimate because the hardrive was broken and he would have to fit a new one.

Could I really have nuked the harddrive this easily?

What I would like to know is am I the cause of this or just unlucky that it happened when I was on it? Of course I am being blamed anyway and am now feel that I should pay for the repair.


Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Ken

 

There is the possibility that your actions may have damaged the operating system necessitating a reinstall but it's farfetched to say it would physically destroy the hard drive also. If these friends are important to you, consider paying. I would ask for the hard drive to examine it myself before I'd turn over any money, though. Perhaps I'm jaded and cynical, but it's seems just a bit fishy.

 

Sorry to hear that ken Its one of those crappy situations where you try and help someone out,something screws up and you get blamed,personally if my friends screw something up while helping me out,I'll slap his face ,we'll fight a bit , laugh about it and I'll pay as it wouldnt of happened if I hadnt asked for help

Pretty much nothing suprises me anymore when it comes to pc's,but the odds that what you did killed the harddrive are slim to none,I doubt the harddrive is even broken,sound just like a bad driver install,the repair guy is probably ripping you off they make more money with markups on parts',do you have any more details of the steps he took to repair the computer while he was at their home,if the computer made it to the windows splash screen its highly likely it could have been repaired using the repair console,this should have been his first step if he couldnt get into windows through safe mode,its a shame you didnt come here with the original problem

The only other explaination is the hardddrive died of natural wear and tear the exact moment you used it which is very unlikely and if so they have had the benefit of hardrive over its life and it was time for a new one anyways why should you pay for it

These kind of things can make or break friendships,I think if you wanna pay because you feel bad thats up to you,if they force you to pay,I'd pay and then have nothing more to do with them,Just my honest opinion

If you lend a friend £5 and then never see them again its money well spent

 

howcome;

I agree with Rikky and Just playn, the only item missed is a virus in the hard drive but what u did should not have grounded the machine.
as Paul Harvey say's something like here's the rest of the story, the machine had or has more going on than a incorrect camera install.

asturnacle

 

What a bind!
If you're paycheck-to-paycheck, you probably can't afford to pay for this repair! If you can afford it, I'm not sure you should anyway. Like Rikky and Justplayn, it seems like the friendship is the issue here. My three friends (TRUE friends) and I would be arguing over who gets the opportunity to pay.

Seems more likely that, like Rikky says, Windows just didn't like the device driver. New hardware can dork up windows just as you've described and if the start up options are configured to "reboot-if-startup-problem", a person would never get to see the blue screen to try to interpret the source issue.

Now that a repair person's involved, it's tough because he could say anything and your friends just have to trust him. Since he has the laptop, he can "fix" it to support any story he provides.

Further, HDDs can dork up like that, just of a sudden, but if (a big if) it shipped without factory defects, it should have run for years. Has it been years?

I'd be interested in hearing the tech explain the results of a CHKDSK and any other diagnostic test he'd run just to listen to his reaction (not that that would prove anything).

Good luck!
Bob

 

Thanks guys. I managed to get to the blue settings page and had to go out to work. The guy managed to start up in safe mode but said he couldn't get any further as it was still rebooting continuously so would have to take it away and reinstall windows.

The computer is only around one year old and had a new modem fitted when it was 3months old. Same guy, said it couldn't possibly be the modem at the time but it was

My thoughts were to come and log in here with the problem and I knew you guys would be able to come up with an answer as you have helped me out before. My friends are ok and are not blaming me or demanding I pay its just I feel I should contribute something as all was working ok before I meddled

I'll try and find out more as to what has been done and checked and will let you know the outcome when they get it back.

thanks, Ken... a little wiser

 

Hmmm,he started in safe mode,it continuously rebooted and his only course of action was to completely reinstall windows and now it needs a new harddrive ,time to find a new Tech,Good luck mate,I feel for you