HomeReplacementWindows.net

Hard Drive Failure?

I recently (2 weeks ago) bought a very expensive computer system with Windows Vista Ultimate pre-installed. One night I woke up to the sound of a very high pitched noise coming from the machine. It appeared to happen when the computer went to "sleep". A restart gives me the following message: "Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter". It now will no longer start. I managed to get it into safe mode once by using a windows disk. However soon after I was met with a blue screen and the following message: "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. IRQL-NOT-LESS-OR-EQUAL" I'm having trouble getting a replacement hard drive from the crappy manufacturer. Is there anything I can do or try in the meantime?

Public Comments

1. i've had a quick look at the links below and they seem to be what you need

   hope that helps



2. Yes, and this is incredibly stupid, but it often works.

   First, make sure there are no disks in any drives, if you find one (like in the floppy) try to restart the computer, if no, shut it down, open it up, reset the RAM (remove the RAM and put it back in), then check all the cables and connectors by physically pushing on them.

   Try it again, it may boot up, if not, you probably need a hard drive.



3. Wow.. that's really weird..

   What's wrong with your Hard drive? I think it might of heated up and exploded lolz...

   You shouldn't put your computer on sleep, just shut it down.. Make sure to put lots of fans or it actually might melt itself when it gets got..

   So its either your hard drive, or just stupid windows, since vista has millions of bugs anyways... Do you have any other old hard drives? if you do try sticking one it and test if you can work the computer on it...



4. Some hard drive manufacturers offer free downloadable hard disk utilities which may be able to check your disk. If you know the brand of disk go to their web site and search for disk diagnostic utilities. Seagates' is called 'Seatools' I think.


5. Your computer can't read what is on the hard drive. thus, "boot failure". Sounds like your hard disc failed and there is really nothing you can do until that is fixed.

   You should be able to boot from a CD without a blue screen, however. If you can't do that there may be something else wrong.



6. It must still be under guarantee(12 months)So why don't you ring

   them and they will have it collected and fixed.Free of charge.



7. try checking to see if you have any discs/cd left in the drive as more often than not computers tend to be setup so they look for cd's first before they search for hard drive. your computer simply may have installed some updates and the automatic restart did its job by switching off your computer. if all this fails then switch off and check your memory and cables (sata cables have a tendency to come loose unless they have some form of clipto prevent this) to make sure they are still in properly. i am a firm believer in buying locally as it makes it much easier to return stuff. I have experienced crappy suppliers before. 13 weeks to return a computer which had a faulty mobo. its easier to build your own.


8. You could try scanning the hard drive with Scandisk to see if it has problems. Take a look at http://www.grc.com/spinrite.