Hardrive failure

[B.Calhoun]

Well my other computer is having some problems.

When i turn it on i hear some sputtering within the computer then soon after a screen comes up that says "1720- Hardrive detect iminent failure"

And theres 2 options either press f1 to boot or f10 to setup.

When i hit f1 to boot the windows loading screen comes up and stays there forever. And im not sure what i should do in computer setup.

Also im having trouble finding the windows floppy disk, because i was gunna try to boot up with that...but i cant find it.

ANyway its a four year old Compaq Presario and I was wondering if anyone could help me fix the problem because its a real pain when my sister keeps asking me to go on my computer...then complains to my mom, so anyone please help me.

 

[jabberwock95]

Sounds like you have a hard drive problem...

The message is from a BIOS hard drive diagnostic program, I forget what it is called. The fact that you cant boot windows makes it seem like a pretty serious problem.

Can you see any hard drive options in the setup menus (probably in Bios setup or something like that)? Personally I wouldnt hold out much hope for the drive recovering. Sounds like you need a new one.

When something similar happened to me, I was annoyed to discover that the drive in my computer only had a life expectancy of three years. Yours could be the same. How are you at replacing drives?

Edit: Oh, forgot to ask. Any strange grinding/skipping noises from the computer? If you do manage to boot to DOS, run a thorough scandisk.

 

[B.Calhoun]

Well the weird skipping/sputtering sound at the begining doesnt sound good.

And its a very simple little setup utility taht it takes me into, nothing on hardrives.

And ive never replaced a drive before, is it very difficult (would it even be worth the money to replace?) and i havent been able to boot into anything else.

 

[sinkoman]

Well the weird skipping/sputtering sound at the begining doesnt sound good.

And its a very simple little setup utility taht it takes me into, nothing on hardrives.

And ive never replaced a drive before, is it very difficult (would it even be worth the money to replace?) and i havent been able to boot into anything else.

Sounds like the discs in the harddrive (not sure what they're called) might be mailfunctioning.

 

[jabberwock95]

Yeah, it sounds like you have a pretty crapped out hard drive. If its making wierd sounds then its definately a hardware problem.

I hope there wasnt any important stuff you didnt have backed up, as you probably wont be able to get any of it back (at least without professional help).

Your only options are to either replace the hard drive and reinstall windows and everything else, or to scrap the computer. I dont know how much new drives cost in the US or how much anyone would charge to replace them. It is a pretty easy job if you have done any upgrade work before. You could probably find instructions on the net (google).

If you do replace the drive, you will have to reinstall windows from the CD, I dont know about re-registering if you were using windows XP. If you have the tools, the disks and the know-how its a pretty simple job, I had to do it for the first time when my comp stopped working after a storm.

Sorry to hear about the problem, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[Maxi]

It's actually very easy. You have to remove 2-4 screwes, normally two from each side of the case. Unplug two cables. Slip the drive out, and insert the new one, then plug the cables back in.

Sounds like the heads on your hdd have crapped, and are scraping the drive.

I recomend purchasing the new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 drives. You get 160 gigabyte for 110€ (much cheaper in the us).

 

[jabberwock95]

It's actually very easy. You have to remove 2-4 screwes, normally two from each side of the case. Unplug two cables. Slip the drive out, and insert the new one, then plug the cables back in.

While making sure the stupid jumper switches aren't set to some stupid setting that no-one ever uses by default making the stupid drive not work when you've just screwed the damn case back on.

What? No, of course i've never done that myself... :upstare:

 

[Maxi]

Well... most new drives these days comes with the jumper on cable select, which as always worked for me. (I have a sata as my "Main" drive).

 

[baron insig]

Hard drives are cheap as chips, you can pick up a bog standar one from the internet for like 30 quid

 

[B.Calhoun]

Ah well ive messed around with some hardaware on my own computer so it sounds like a simple job, the only problem would be that its in one of those damn compaq cases which have all this extra plastic and crap whihc is a bitch to get open.