Help! How can I tell if my hard drive is broken or burned out?

Hi, I'd like to know if any of you can help me figure out if the problem I'm having is just my hard drive or something else. My laptop is an S96j or Z96js whichever you choose to call it.

Recently I was playing CS:S and my laptop just froze, I shut it down, then turned it back on and it wont load into windows, and freezes every time at the second the loading screen shows. I have also tried to reinstall windows and that locks up on the windows cd loading screen too! I've tried removing certain ram sticks, and removing everything else and I still have the same issue every time. My computer boots, and will load into the BIOS screen fine and never crashes there.

My laptop did hit a table pretty hard where the hard drive slips in, which is one of the reasons why I think the hard drive is the problem. I've estimated that it's been used for about 120000-140000 hours so far.. mabe it just died?
I really have no idea!

 

If it's freezing on the CD, then it's not the hard drive. You probably compressed the plastic of the casing and damaged the motherboard. A new motherboard would cost you $375, and either enough skill to install it or somewhere around $200-$400 for that. Unless you have an extended warranty still active, then I hope you either got accidental damage protection, or the damage doesn't physically show.

By the way, I think that estimate is a bit off, that's 13-15 years.

 

mabe so.. i used a calculator estimating 6 hours a day for the duration ive owned it.

And no, there's not even so much as a scratch on my laptop. If I remove the hard drive, then the windows CD tells me that there's no hard drive, and to press a button to restart... it doesnt crash unless the hard drive is in it. And it doesnt crash until the point where the hard drive should start spinning up.

The laptop only bumped hard on the corner where the hard drive is. And like I said, there's no physical damage, and the case couldn't have been compressed.

 

That's really weird, but I suppose it's possible the install CD's OS is getting a report from the hard drive's logic which conflicts with it's actual physical ability and causing a lock or massive delay. Can you hear the hard drive spin? Tried running a diagnostic?

I hope it's just the hard drive, it's a whole lot cheaper.

 

first use HD tune to check the "health" of the hdd

Most manufacturers of hard drives have their own diagnostic tool to cheak the hdd


Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities

 

You arent going to get into any windows platform in the machine's current state.

I say pop out the hard drive, and put the windows install cd back in. If it boots into the setup just fine, the HD was the issue. If it still crashes you need to dig further for the correct fault.

 

The ONLY REAL way to tell is to
Remove the HARD disk and slave it to another computer
with either a USB to 2.5" adapter IDE to 2.5" adapter

These are pretty cheap at compgeeks or tiger

Another tool (if you have it) or can get it is ERD 5 or later
hint emule This is a bootable cd (used by geek squad)
that is independant of the installed windows OS
which is helpful to diagnose the system board and memory
If the HDD is not recognized there is a pretty good chance it
has gone bye bye.
When you Finally get your laptop running you may wish to
help protect your computer in the future with something like
a laptopholder. The one that I developed is at Lapkitt.com
Or you may find something similar that helps prevent overheating
and future problems.

 

HDD died or dying, pop it into a 2.5" enclosure quickly and stop trying to access it from within your laptop. Hookup to a desktop, copy all data possible, send in for RMA.

You can get a 100GB drive for less than $100 nowadays. There are also 160,200, and 250GB varieties that not only store more but perform much better.

Hey, when life throws you lemons...