Laptop Hard drive failure

Hi there

I have recently gotten ahold of a friend's laptop. To fix it. I thought I could,t but apparently not.

Here is what i think is the problem. I think he needs a new hard drive completely, memory upgrade wouldnt be bad either

The problem? Ok, when i got it, it had Windows Vista installed on it. IT would BSOD every time you tried to boot the computer, it would show the "starting windows" or "loading windows" screen for about 5 seconds, then BSOD then restart. At first i thought this might be something wrong with Vista. So then i tried to install Windows 7 onto it. No matter how hard, or how many times i tried. It always had a error at about 35% through it. Then I tried Windows XP. It got a little further i guess, but now it crashes out as soon as the "Windows XP" screen first shows up.

This is a very annoying problem, and im assuming its the harddrive. Or some other hardware failure. Any help would be appreciated!

By the way, if it is the harddrive, would it be worth replacing? How expensive are Laptop Harddrives?

Laptop- Acer Aspire 3680

 

i'm aware i might not have really helped the computer at all. But nothing has changed with the thing since i had it. And, yes im aware the thing isnt able to really run Windows 7. Ive seen worse run it, and the thing came with Vista, apparently when they bought it, it was on there.

I did format the thing before I tried to install anything onto it. Before I touched it, they said the hard drive might have been messed up. I have fixed another computer doing the same thing. Formatting, and reinstalling to see if it worked, and the last few times it has.

I would have come here first for help. But like i mentioned. This method has worked for me before, seriously like two days ago, i did the same thing for another laptop, and it worked fine. Im not stupid enough to just install OS after OS without formatting or anything. I know the hard drive is completely screwed. It refuses to Format, either using DOS to do it, or Windows 7/ Windows Vista/ Windows XP. It would not format normally. ( it did that before i ever touched it )

So if its the Hard Drive, would it be worth replacing it.
The computer has a Windows Vista Home premium key on the underside. There are no recovery discs available to me. By the way, Formatting isnt the first thing i do to try to fix a pc.

 

Newegg has Laptop HDD starting around $40

 

Actually depending on the processor and memory that laptop could run Win 7, you'd have to have the Aero stuff turned off but I've installed 7 on 1.6-1.8Ghz CPU/2Gb ram setups and it'll run OK. Wouldn't want to play games on it but for web surfing, general office stuff, occasional video watching it'll work.

Sam

 

Contact Acer and ask whether you can get a recovery disc from them. I've done this with HP for a Compaq that was out of warranty. After they asked for the serial # of the computer, they said had a recovery disc for a fee of about $17, as I recall. If you can get a low-cost recovery disc from Acer and a new hard drive, you should be ready to go unless there are other hardware issues besides the hard drive.

Another thought: I'd get my hands on a Linux OS such as Ubuntu, Mint, or some other Linux distro, that can be booted from DVD and try running it on that laptop as a way to confirm that it has no other problems besides the hard drive.

 

I did get my hands on a Knoppix 5 iso image. That i have burnt to a disc, and its running on the laptop right now. Its been running perfectly fine for a few hours now. So that really makes me think its the hard drive that failed. I can explore the hard drive, i was hoping i could format it using knoppix, or maybe run a chkdsk program and fix hard drive errors. Because when i ran Check disk on DOS, it said it found some errors, but it didn't even attempt to fix them. I don't know if it was supposed to fix them or not.

 

Hi,

I think you could do a couple of things. If the HD has no partitions you want to save (meaning that you no longer have a recovery partition on the HD that should be preserved) then you could try to write zeros to the drive to completely erase it using the HD disk manufacturer's utility or try formatting it in linux and see if that helps.

1) Find the brand of HD and I can give a link to the HD manufacturer's utility. (I'm on Linux now, so I don't have access to my bookmarks). You would zero out the drive using low-level format and then create new partition for the OS install.

2) I downloaded Knoppix 5 and it has Gparted partitioning software installed. You could try using Gparted to delete existing partitions on the HD and then create a new one and format it to NTFS in Gparted. (Sometimes this works better than letting Windows format the partition--I don't know why).

Gpated is under the K/Start button and then System menu in Knoppix 5. It requires an Administrator passsword. You have to set one.

I think the commands are click on the Terminal icon in the taskbar (looks like a monitor icon--says Konsole when browsed over).

Type sudo su - <enter button>
Type sudo su && passwd <enter button>
Type exit
It should now prompt you for a password. Type in root and then retype it when prompted.
Close the Terminal window.

Now, go back to Start/K button on the taskbar and select System and Gparted and enter root for the password when prompted.

Gparted should start. In the upper right hand corner should be a selection for disks like /dev/hda, you want to find your hard drive by size so 80gb or whatever the size of the HD is. Then select that and it should show you partitions on the HD.

You want to delete all partitions and then create a new one and format it to NTFS. Then try the Windows installation on the NTFS partition to see if you get any further.

****

I can help you out with specifics on either option. This Knoppix 5 is not an ideal disc to work from (I'm having trouble making this post from the disc. but I think Gparted should work from it if is all you have).

Doing a low-level format from a HD utility may be an easier option to completely erase the HD and see if it is viable.