HD clicking

  • Thread starter Thread starter slushfund
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slushfund

My daughter's laptop, a two year old HP, has developed a clicking noise when
it's turned on. Accompanying this clicking are a lot of error messages. She
can't get into Windows through safe mode or the regular mode. She's away at
college and hard to get the proper error messages from her. Something about
system 32 and missing files and the only screen she gets is a command
prompt. She uses Xp home and I tried to get her to System Restore thru Safe
Mode but no luck.
She's brought it to University Computers and was told "sounds like you
need a new hard drive." Do HD's go that fast?
It seems the problem arose almost overnight. I'll try to get better error
messages but what's the general consensus.
 
Switch on - non stop clack...clack...clack... = new hard-disk, as you've
been advised.

regards, Richard
 
slushfund said:
My daughter's laptop, a two year old HP, has developed a clicking
noise when it's turned on. Accompanying this clicking are a lot of
error messages. She can't get into Windows through safe mode or the
regular mode. She's away at college and hard to get the proper error
messages from her. Something about system 32 and missing files and the
only screen she gets is a command prompt. She uses Xp home and I tried
to get her to System Restore thru Safe Mode but no luck.
She's brought it to University Computers and was told "sounds
like you
need a new hard drive." Do HD's go that fast?
It seems the problem arose almost overnight. I'll try to get better
error messages but what's the general consensus.
Click to expand...

The general consensus is right - the hard drive is dying. Clicking
noises (and loud grinding) from a hard drive are a Bad Thing and the
hard drive is dead or dying. You should call HP tech support, because
one of the truly sucky things about HP boxen is that they have their
restore image on a hidden partition on the hard drive. So when you buy
a new hard drive from the store, you won't even have a Restore Disk to
use to restore Windows.

Malke
 
I have the original HP restore disks here at home. Should I forward
them to the people who will be installing the new HD? Any vague guesses
about the cost of a replacement HD? She made note that they said something
about a new drive costing around $110.
 
It sounds very much like the hard drive is dying. Mine failed in a similar
way after 18 months so yes it can and does happen. It's also not unusual for
a drive to fail very quickly (eg in less than one second) so "the problem
arose almost overnight" is not uncommon either.

If there is any data on that hard drive that is important she should stop
all attempts to get it going again and consult a local expert. The best way
to recover data it NOT to try and boot from that drive but to connect it as
a slave to another working drive, then extract the data.

Good luck.
 
I have the original HP restore disks here at home. Should I forward
them to the people who will be installing the new HD? Any vague guesses
about the cost of a replacement HD? She made note that they said something
about a new drive costing around $110.
Click to expand...

Add to the cost of the new hard drive, labor. You're probably looking
at least several hundred dollars to replace the drive. It would be
best to have her get the work done at an authorized HP dealer who then
would have restore disks on hand without you having to provide them.
 
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