HDD Failure(?) And advice.

Greetings those who know hardware better than I do.

I recently purchased a brand new notebook! (Check signature) and I have now used it for all of four days, including earlier today. I shut down the computer, and packed it up, taking it with me to do a bit of business, and just when I plugged it back in and powered it up, I went right into a black screen. Like one would without having an OS installed on the computer, and it asked for a disk to load from.

Well I figured that was weird, except that I noticed this repetitive little sound that sounded like a skipping high-pitched whine coming from the notebook. I figured that, perhaps in transit my HDD was simply shifted around, so I unscrewed everything, and made sure to realign according to the usual 2.5" SATA spot, and replaced it....

So I rebooted, and got the same message.

Well, it's a brand new laptop, and I did not have any data on it, so I figured, sure, maybe it just needs me to re-install the OS.

So I bring out my XP recovery CD, and then when I try to set up the partitions and choose a drive, I got the fun BSOD.

I tried it with Vista, and again. ERROR. BSOD.

Now, for those that understand HDDs better than I do, the question is simple: Was the drive simply shifted around? Is this something I can repair myself? Or is this something I need to send in and activate the warranty.

Is it common for HDDs to fail within a few days of activation?

Thanks for the advice.

 

Your evidence does point to HDD failure. They can die at any time although most run for several years. This one conveniently died quickly instead of waiting until you had lots of info on it.

Does the BIOS still see the HDD and report the make / model? If so, you could check the manufacturer's website and see if they have any diagnostic software. Some provide an ISO file so you can burn and boot from a CD to test the HDD.

Alternatively, contact the computer's supplier. They may treat it as DoA (dead on arrival) and offer to replace the whole computer.

John

 

It does look like you received a bad harddrive. I would contact ASUS, and they will be able to send you a new harddrive. Simply send the harddrive to them and they will send you a replacement.
It usually takes a lot of beating to break a laptop harddrive, so the slight movement of the notebook in your backpack did not do any damage to it.

I like your forum name

K-TRON

 

Before you send your hd off, make sure that it is the damaged component. Boot from either ultimatebootcd or hiren's cd, and run the diagnostics software.

 

I can't even boot into safe mode. Every time I turn it on it says this:

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key."

No safe mode boot is available. Suggestions? Diagnostics?

 

You have already indicated that the computer will boot from a CD but has problems accessing the HDD.

Safe mode won't work because it is a mode for the Windows installed on the HDD, which doesn't work. Therefore any diagnostic tests need to be run from CD.

John

 

Agreed. The Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) is what you need

They even provide a number of tutorials, for the benefit of first-time users

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

Safe to say, there's nothing left for me to do but to RMA the drive.