Ok guys, I figured I would ask here since many of you seem very computer savvy.

Today I was using my PC (its an HP Pavilion a1540n) and the computer suddenly froze. It gave me an error message saying that it could not read the hard disk and restarted. When I restarted windows the drive started making terrible noises and windows wouldn't load. Its still giving the cannot read errors.

I'm pretty sure the hard drive is toasted . . . How do I go about fixing my computer. I don't care so much about the data on the current drive, but I do need the computer to work.

I do not have my recovery disk (I lost it somewhere). How do I install a new hard drive and get the computer started again.

Thanks in advance for any help.

buy a new disk (make sure it is the correct type PATA or SATA), borrow a copy of XP or whatever OS you like. Install the new drive and start the fun of reinstalling the OS on the new drive. XP is pretty simple to install on a basic PC - just follow the prompts.
Then buy yourself a big USB drive and actually use it to back up your files.
Steve

You may want to give HP a call. First you need to know the exact type of hard drive; it may be an ATA drive or a SATA drive for connections. Almost any drive with the correct connections can be used. I think the recovery disk can only be used if the original HD is functional. With a new HD, you need a full OS CD and serial number to install from scratch. These situations are real bummers. I like to build my own computer so that upgrading and maintaining is simple. Computers with preinstalled custom OS's with which you only get a recovery CD are problematic. Good luck.

The following steps assume the drive is some what readable, meaning the drive still spins but has bad bytes or blocks. I have used the following to recover machines that no longer boot. No promises but I have done the following a few times with great success.

1. Get a copy of Knoppix (free)
2. Install a new hard drive make sure it is the first on the IDE chain and the master, preferably the same size as the original.
3. Make your bad hard drive the slave
4. boot Knoppix from your cd rom
5. Use the DD (linux command) to move the contents of the old drive to the new drive (but should continue on failure of read) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix)
6. reboot your machine

dd will read your original drive byte-by-byte and can be configured to ignore bytes it cannot read.

pm me if you have any more questions

once you get the pc up and running again, I suggest getting a copy of Norton Ghost, and creating an image of the entire system; this will allow you to reimage the computer whenever you want by booting off of that backup CD, restoring it to the exact state it was in when you created the image. good luck!

-JON

I buy very little (read none) software preferring to use linux and other open source applications. The one program I recommend everyone purchase is SpinRite (about 90 bucks).

I have used this program to recover hard drives when all else has failed. SpinRite will recover data regardless of installed operating system, I understand it even works on TiVos.

I am in no way affiliated with GRC (creator of SpinRite), just a satisfied customer. If there is data on your hard drive you do not want to lose, give it a try it's worth the price. If you are able to recover a failing hard drive, continue using it just long enough to get your important files off. No product can guarantee against subsequent catastrophic hard drive failure.


Along with the discussion of lost data, I highly recommend everyone consider using Mozy. This service allows anyone to remotely store up to 2G of data absolutely free. There is a $5 monthly charge for unlimited backup space but the 2G free can save a lot of grief when important files are lost to a destroyed (or stolen) hard drive. It's very easy to use and operates in the background. The downside is that it is only available with Microsoft OSs.