HDD problem or not?

Firstli I want to say thank you to risk_reversal and DomLuc for helping me with my XP problems, you helped me save my data and I am really greatful.

I kept getting a disk read error when ever the computer began to load windows. I wasn't sure what to do, so I did the only thing I think of a fresh install of the XP OS.
It went through the motions of formatting and partioning but then I would get a message saying that it could not read the disk and therefore could not continue.

Does this mean my HDD is dead? If so, was it a software/stupid owner problem or a hardware failure.

If it's hardware I think I'm still covered by my warranty so...(I'm to embarassed to take it in if I was the cause.) yeah all help really appreciated.

HDD: WD320gb 7200rpm 16mb cache SATA 2

Thanks
Will

 

Driver requirements aside, you coud use the manufacturer's software prog to check the integrity of the hard drive in question. This prog will be available to run either on floppy or bootable cd. For example Seagate uses Seatools and Hitachi uses Drive Fitness Test.

Otherwise, you could go down the Linux Live cd route. This will only require that you make a bootable cd from an iso and change the 1st boot device to optical ie cd/dvd. Linux will load in memory and will boot to a desktop.

Once you are into Linux, you could also use GParted.

Puppy Linux is my preferred distro although I am sure that other users have their favourites.

What revision version of XP are you using SP2/3? It is my understanding that newer SATA drives are using newer firmware that XP will see without additional driver requirements. I may be mistaken on that but see post #16.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=595008&st=15

Good Luck