Verified answer

Your hard drive is possibly failing and may be due for a replacement. DON'T delay replacing it. I would suggest running the Hitachi Hard Drive Fitness Test (works with ANY brand of SATA hard drive) and can be downloaded from Hitachi and burned to a bootable CD.

If you want to do it yourself and not pay the big bucks to Geek Squad and are reasonably computer savvy, read for instructions on how to do this yourself. You have TWO options.

Option 1 (Recommended): This assumes you just want to transfer data files and not the whole operating system too:

1. Buy an aluminum 2.5" SATA hard drive enclosure (2.5" refers to the size of a laptop hard drive; 3.5" is for desktops). You can buy a good quality one for about $10 plus shipping from Newegg.com. Best Buy and other big box stores, though, typically do not sell enclosures so you have to buy one from Newegg.com or TigerDirect.com unless you have a Micro Center store near you. SAVE the OLD hard drive that is failing. You will put it into this enclosure later.

2. Buy a new 2.5" SATA laptop hard drive from a retailer of your choice. They HAVE increased in price due to shortages. I just bought a Samsung 750GB hard drive (5400 RPM speed) from Newegg.com for $109.99. Brands that are good are Western Digital, Seagate, and Samsung. I would avoid Hitachi like the plague, though. Not as reliable, from my experience.

3. Install the NEW hard drive you bought in your laptop.

4. Install Windows on your laptop on the NEW drive. Use either a retail or OEM installation disc OR a recovery disc set you created from when you first set up the laptop with the original hard drive. If you do not have a disc for Windows installation, you can acquire one from HP by going to www.hp.com and then going to their "Support and Downloads" page but it will probably cost you $20 or more and you have to provide proof of purchase since your computer is likely out of warranty unless you bought an extended warranty. I am guessing that your computer has a "recovery partition" and you didn't make a disc to begin with (like many typical users, unfortunately). But as long as you provide proof of purchase and still have the Windows OEM COA sticker on the bottom of your laptop (next to HP service tag), you should be able to get the recovery disc from HP for a nominal charge. Certainly cheaper than buying a retail box version of Windows 7. You could also try borrowing a friend's disc (retail box only) with Windows 7 but activating it using YOUR product key on YOUR COA sticker on your computer but I haven't tried that. My understanding is that as long as you're using a legit product key that belongs to YOU, it is NOT illegal to borrow a disc for this purpose provided you're using a legit product key on your OEM-branded computer. I haven't tried, this, however so I can't verify whether it will successfully activate. After all, product keys are embedded into OEM Windows machines built by major manufacturers so it might not work.

(SPOILER ALERT: You CAN install from a full retail box version OR an "upgrade" version. You just have to do a Custom or "clean" install.)

5. Once you've installed Windows onto your replacement drive, you will need to reinstall your programs (either by re-downloading or discs).

6. You can now transfer your data files from your failing hard drive, which you put in the enclosure.

Option 2 (Not highly recommended):

1. Follow the instructions in steps 1 and 2 in Option 1.

2. Keep the failing hard drive in your laptop.

3. Put the NEW hard drive in the enclosure.

4. Buy Acronis True Image Home for $50 (any version, current version is 2012). There might also be a trial version available for download from CNET or something like that. Either will work.

5. If you buy Acronis, insert the boot CD/DVD for the program. You may have to change your "Boot Options" in the BIOS to allow booting from the optical drive FIRST.

6. Acronis Loader will start. Run the program from the boot CD and in the main menu, go to "Tools and Utilities" and start "Clone Drive." Select your source drive as your bad one and your target drive as the new hard drive you put in your enclosure.

7. If successful, this will have "cloned" your existing drive to your new drive and kept all of your settings, files, etc.

(The reason I DON'T recommend Option 2 as highly is because your failing hard disk may, well, fail while attempting this method. Also, your Windows partition on your failing drive may have other issues that would just be "cloned" to a brand new hard drive.)

(If you end up LOSING data on your failing drive, you can attempt recovering it by installing Recuva to your new Windows install. Recuva is made by Piriform, Ltd. and is FREE for non-commercial use, or by taking it a specialist in data recovery--definitely NOT free.)

Let me know what works!

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

A hard disk problem is preventing Windows from booting up?

Hello, I have had a Compaq Presario CQ50 Laptop for about 2 years. I just turned it on this morning and it said the following:

SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk 6: WDC WD1600BEVT-00A23T0-(S3)

WARNING: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be...

Important. SMART should be taken as a guide. It is not the be-all-and-end-all of the status of a drive. It's perfectly possible to have a drive that flags up as being SMART failure out of the box and it'll last four years. There's no set standard for SMART and what's seen as critical on one drive is normal for another.

If you have a flopy drive, can you install windows boot up, with fdisk on it? If so, boot up with that, run fdisk, delete partition, then place windows cd in drive, reboot the machine without the 3.5 in drive. Windows should take over and let you re-install. Also, do not format hd on quick mode, take the time and let it format thoroughly. Good luck, this the only real help i could find searching for you. Peace!

It is telling you that your hard drive is faulty and warning you to get it replaced before it stops working URGENTLY. Get it to a computer shop, NOW, TODAY, and get a new hard drive fitted. They can transfer your important files for you.

It really is IMPORTANT you do it now before you lose all your data.

I was wondering the same question myself today