What ya recon?

[woll]

My mate has given me his missus' laptop to look at because it won't boot, it takes forever to get onto the home screen then it shuts itself off, i ran start up repair on it and did a memory check and it came back with this:
https://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu211/whalley1992/d96e3347.jpg?t=1302734890
There's been a blow to the laptop at some point, the back of the screen is dented and the keys are wonky underneath the dent. I'm thinking the hard drive has been damaged.
What do the computer geeks recon?
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Current Bike- Suzuki DRZ400 SM K6
Previous bikes - Derbi Senda Xtreme50r, Honda CBR 125, Kawasaki ZZR 250, Yamaha DT125R, Suzuki Bandit 600, Gas gas ec 250, Honda CBR600FW
Damaged spleen, damaged kindey, 2 popped lungs, 2 broken ribs, broken face, broken wrist and 5 back fractures... remember kids walls hurt

[Frost]

Might be the disk, might be the connector, motherboard or any of a number of things. First take the bottom off and take the hard drive out (it's like 5 screws max). Give it a quick look over and put it back in making sure the connector is in properly. Give it another try and see if it works. if not:

https://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

Go there and download the desktop version 64bit if you know thats what you need, otherwise go 32. Once it's downloaded go down to the section Burn your CD or create a USB drive, pick USB stick and download the little program. Run it and point it to your USB stick & the big file you downloaded.
Stick it in the laptop and try booting it. If that doesn't work go into BIOS and make sure the drive is set first in the boot order and try again. If it refuses to boot from the USB drive then you've got big problems. If it boots okay replace the hard drive.

I don't know how good you are with computers or how complicated i made all that sound, but i could do it in about 10-15 mins, a clueless person in about 30-40, just to give you an estimate on how much work it all is.

[The View Askew]

Well the hard drive is connected or it wouldn't make it to the home screen, as this is stored on the hard drive. The drive, or a least the system data on it is compromised, get a windows disk, try to re format and install to the current drive.

IMO the drive has had it, and will need a clean install of windows onto a fresh drive, either way prepare to lose everything on the machine, unless you are able to access the drive from another working machine, and see what exactly can be read from it.
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"Do what you always did, get what you always got"

[woll]

Ta lads i had a feeling that would be said, i'll try booting it off ubuntu see if that works.

____________________
Current Bike- Suzuki DRZ400 SM K6
Previous bikes - Derbi Senda Xtreme50r, Honda CBR 125, Kawasaki ZZR 250, Yamaha DT125R, Suzuki Bandit 600, Gas gas ec 250, Honda CBR600FW
Damaged spleen, damaged kindey, 2 popped lungs, 2 broken ribs, broken face, broken wrist and 5 back fractures... remember kids walls hurt

[panrider_uk]

Spinrite will give the disc a good checkout.

Mark
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Current bikes: Honda ST1100 Pan European. Moto Guzzi V85 TT Travel

[woll]

It boots off ubuntu, i must be a problem with the os on the hard drive. I'm going to see if i can recover her uni work before i do anything else. She wouldn't be too happy if she lost it all.
____________________
Current Bike- Suzuki DRZ400 SM K6
Previous bikes - Derbi Senda Xtreme50r, Honda CBR 125, Kawasaki ZZR 250, Yamaha DT125R, Suzuki Bandit 600, Gas gas ec 250, Honda CBR600FW
Damaged spleen, damaged kindey, 2 popped lungs, 2 broken ribs, broken face, broken wrist and 5 back fractures... remember kids walls hurt

[SoND]

Does safe mode work?
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Go back to bed - You have no rights - "Streetfighters ~ Mainstream motorcycling's crackwhore sister."

[0l0dom0l0]

What OS is it running?

If you do a Windows 7 clean install it saves all the old files and folders into a folder called 'windows old'. Could be worth a shot.
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CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[woll]

Safe mode doesn't work and it was running vista. I've given it her back for the time being so she can decide what she wants to do.
____________________
Current Bike- Suzuki DRZ400 SM K6
Previous bikes - Derbi Senda Xtreme50r, Honda CBR 125, Kawasaki ZZR 250, Yamaha DT125R, Suzuki Bandit 600, Gas gas ec 250, Honda CBR600FW
Damaged spleen, damaged kindey, 2 popped lungs, 2 broken ribs, broken face, broken wrist and 5 back fractures... remember kids walls hurt