Solved Hard Drive Failure: next steps?

EightForums community,

I have an HP Desktop (Pavilion p6331p) and I did a clean install of Windows 8.

Recently, however, the hard drive has failed (I used the tools in the BIOS to figure that out). I'll turn it on, it will function for a few minutes, and then give me a blue screen (even in Safe Mode).

I probably need a new hard drive, so I have some questions:

Would this one work (link)? It's a good price and would be a slight upgrade from my previous 750GB to 1TB.

I don't really want to go through the pain of re-installing everything, but if its failing then that's probably a pretty good sign...

I appreciate your help and suggestions while I try and figure this problem out.

Thanks,

David

Recently, however, the hard drive has failed (I used the tools in the BIOS to figure that out). I'll turn it on, it will function for a few minutes, and then give me a blue screen (even in Safe Mode).

Click to expand...

Hi David.
I am not really sure there's such a tool in BIOS that can diagnose your HD but BSOD's can happen due to various problems in your system, it can be HD, memory, power supply, corrupted system files and the list goes on.
Having said that, you can download this free Hiren's BootCD 15.2 - All in one Bootable CD » www.hiren.info. burn it to CD/USB and boot up from it. The Hiren's Boot CD contains a lot of software including HD diagnostics from different vendors, so you might want to try it before buying a new HD.

Would this one work (link)? It's a good price and would be a slight upgrade from my previous 750GB to 1TB.

Click to expand...

I use HD's from different vendors: Seagate, Hitachi, WD and any of them is good provided you have a good cooling environment. My computer case is ANTEC 900 and it has Fans blowing directly to the HD's so they are just warm instead of burning hot and that makes a big different for the lives of the HD's.

Hope this helps !!!

I my experience, hard drives don't often provide a "warning" that they are about to fail, but if they do, create an image backup of the drive using Macruim Reflect, Acronis or something similar and restore the image to the new drive before getting rid of the old drive. I use old drives in test PC's as there's nothing on them that would be lost if/when the drive fails. Get a Seagate or WD 2 or 3TB drive and enjoy the space!

Some BIOS have built in hard drive and memory diagnostics.

Since you have a desktop system, install the new drive along with the old and clone the old to the new. No reinstall needed. You can do this with Macrium Reflect rescue disc (Linux based works fine for this, no need to go the WinPE route). You create it from Macrium Reflect Free after it's installed.

Note: Since the download is from cnet.com, be careful you don't get the wrong thing or get other junk bundled with it.

I do this kind of stuff with Acronis True Image but it's not free.