Is my harddrive broken?

My laptop froze, and the blue screened. Soon after that it said something about not being able to find an OS. Right after that, it gave me two options. The first said something along the lines of "Attempt to fix (recommended)" If I click on that one, it starts to fix and then a black screen with my cursor comes up with nothing else. It will remain that way until I shut down my laptop by holding the power button.

The other option says "Start windows normally." If I choose this option it says "starting windows" for a good 30-45 seconds before EXTREMELY quickly flashing another blue screen and sending me back to the original two options.

I tried to do a BIOs test that involved testing my hard disk drive. When the test got to 98% my computer shut down by itself.

If you need to know anything else I'll be monitoring this topic pretty frequently, so don't be afraid to ask!

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Could be RAM! If your RAM is in 2 modules, take one out and try starting the system. If the same behavior is observed, put it back in and remove the other module.

If you have problems using each of them, you can at least be sure it is not a RAM related problem.

 

What kind of computer is it? See if diagnostics are available.

I doubt it is a RAM issue as if it POSTS and tries to boot into Windows. A failing drive is more likely but without diagnostics hard to rule out anything.

 

When you power up your laptop, tap F8 to get boot options. Select the one that says "disable automatic boot on system failure" or similar. Now the bluescreen should stay visible and you'll see the ?x?????? -code.

0x00000007b usually means problems with hard drive. Others I don't remember now but they are easy to look up.

Ultimate Boot CD - Overview Ultimate BootCD has testing software from all major HDD brands and also a memory testing software. Run those to find any errors.

 

Alright guys, thanks for the replies. I actually just did this told to me by a friend.

I like Linux Mint more than Ubuntu. Direct download to Linux Mint ISO 700mb so rather large download http://mint.ez.by/linuxmint.com/stable/1…

Get imgburn to put the ISO on a blank CD http://majorgeeks.com/ImgBurn_d4870.html… Use the "Write Image File to Disc" option.

Boot from the CD and you will get a Window looking desktop. Click on Computer and see if you see your HD which will be listed as something in the 100+GB range. Click on the icon and look to see if you can find your files. If your files are there you can copy them to a USB stick.

Then you have to determine what is wrong with your laptop. (You might describe your symptoms a bit more--what exactly happens when you try to start your laptop?) If the HD isn't shown in Computer then it probably is bad and you should replace it. Have you created recovery CD's to reinstall Windows? If not you will have to get an installation disc to get Windows on the new HD.

I was actually able to load up the disk and recover all of the data I needed. However, I'm still looking to solve this problem. I'm about to try some of the things posted already, I'll post back when I'm done.

 

unmountable_boot_volume

0x000000ED (0xFFFFFA8004C48CD0, 0xFFFFFFFFC0000185, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000)

Any ideas?

 

Error means that hard drive cannot be accessed. That can still be software error (driver, messed windows install, whatever) but more probably a hardware failure.

Run the hdd test next: there's usually two tests, short and long. Short test basically asks the drive's SMART log if the drive is bad, long test makes a surface scan too.

 

If a diagnostic results in a failing result you need to test with a known good drive to rule out the controller.

SMART tests IMO are not the most reliable tests. I've had drives pass SMART but fail read/write tests.

 

Hiren's boot CD -> HDD Diagnostics.