Laptop has died

[1nf3rn0x]

Hey guys, my fathers laptop which he uses for word processing at work died. He's had it for a year and a half.

He told me during a power point presentation the laptop gave him a memory error. He can't recall what type. He then shutdown his laptop. He tried to turn it on again and it will not load into windows.

It gets to the HP screen where I ran a system diagnosis and everything is fine. But when I want to test the hard drive it says harddrive does not exist and boot device not available. He told me before this happened nothing was acting or playing up and proper ventilation for the laptop was used. So, I'm thinking either the hard drive has died, or a connection has come loose within the machine.

What do you guys think? Luckily he bought 3 years of warranty, but lots of his teaching data is on that drive. He backs it up regularly but some important files (a week old) are still on there.

It's a Hp Pavillion DV6 not sure what model.

EDIT: After taking the battery out it seems to have booted to windows. I might run a quick hdd test to see if it's healthy..

[dorsetknob]

Try booting with Hirens boot disk use the xp live program see if you can transfer his files that he needs then contact his warrenty provider for repair/replacement

"edit "
Hirens boot disk has loads of diagnostic programs on it for you to test with

[1nf3rn0x]

I'm doing an error scan atm, I know little about hard drive errors, but is this the problem?

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by 1nf3rn0x

I'm doing an error scan atm, I know little about hard drive errors, but is this the problem?

http://img.techpowerup.org/120516/sectors.png

Certain parts of your father's laptop's hard drive has had block on the hard drive that can no longer store data. This is saying that over 1600 blocks have been relocated because of a bad block on the drive. If this spiked recently, you may want to replace the hard drive soon. If it has been growing over time, he might have some time, but it's hard to say.

This indicates no issues with the motor or the heads, but rather with the media itself. It appears the drive has been finding these blocks when it goes to write to them since there are no read errors, that is when you really have a problem because then you've lost data. I would run a full smart diagnostic, it will take a few hours but it will check everything. Run a backup first though.

[dorsetknob]

yes it contains warnings hope you transfered/backed up those files as soon as you could (like before you run these tests just in case it goes tits up again)

[1nf3rn0x]

Ok, transferring the couple hundred megs of the new data to his two protable hdds as we speak. I told him to ring hp up tomorrow afternoon and see what they can do about the problem..

[jaydeee]

I would give it another chance with a trusted technician. But before anything more, file recovery should go first.

[Radical_Edward]

Backup his important data, and start the RMA process with HP.

[ShiBDiB]

Originally Posted by jaydeee

I would give it another chance with a trusted technician. But before anything more, file recovery should go first.

Why? So he can waste a few hundred bucks?

Backup the files and buy a new hd. Reinstall windows on said new hd and transfer the backups to the laptop.

[Depth]

Well he's got a point.

Defective hard-drive and extended warranty.
Advice given: Buy new hard-drive

[jsfitz54]

Not familiar with warranty terms.

Is the hard drive covered?

If not, maybe time to put a SSD in its place. Dad may appreciate the speed.

From the DV6 PDF: 160-GB solid-state drive:
For use only with computer models equipped with an AMD processor 682590-001
For use only with computer models equipped with an Intel processor 666441-001

They do not list brands. Size may indicate Intel SSD.