SATA disk errors.

im running vista. my browser froze up, then when i switched it off and restarted it, windows will not load. im running the symptom tree tests and some of the SATA disk tests are showing uncorrectable data errors in the SMART long self test, Read Test and the Verify Test. i have no idea what all this means. i just had enough sense to check and see if there was a problem in the hard drive. which there apparently is! anyone have a clue as to what i should do or if i need new parts? HELP!

Hi, sorry to hear of the problems you are having with the hard drive. Sooner or later all hard drives will fail, and it looks from what you say that your drive maybe is failing or has already failed. There is a possibility that running chkdsk /r might help (you can do this if you can get to a command prompt on your machine or pull out the drive and fit in in another machine and run the command from there. You will need to take all normal personal safety and ESD (antistatic) precautions. If you made a disc image, when the computer was running well, and kept it safe on removable media then it might be best to just buy a new hard drive, fit it and then reimage it, you will then be up and running again in a very short time. New hard drives are now very inexpensive. Regards paws

Note that most hard drives are warrantied for at least 3 years, many for 5 years. I recommend going out to the drive maker's site and downloading their diagnostic program. If it shows errors it cannot correct, then contact the maker's tech support for a replacement if still under warranty. I just had a 10 month old Western Digital fail which I was not very happy about since I bought one of their better models with a 5 year warranty. I plugged in the serial number into their RMA wizard and it knew by that number it was still under warranty. For the problem I stated it failed WD's diagnostics. They sent me a replacement immediately without me returning the defective one first. They paid for shipping to me, but I had to pay for shipping of the old one back. However, they have a deal with UPS that gives a discount on the shipping. I waited for the replacement to arrive, then returned the bad one in the same box. I certainly was not happy the drive failed, but I really can't complain about WD's warranty support.

i have a dell inspiron. is it possible to use the hard drive on my old HP? the HP runs XP though, not vista.

Yes, hard drives can be fitted in different machines. You mentioned that your troublesome hard drive connected via SATA, make sure the old drive is also SATA or at least that you have a spare IDE socket on your motherboard. Also note that the power connectors are different on Sata and IDE (PATA) but adaptors are cheap.£1 (GBP) It doesn't matter what operating system the hard drive has on your old machine since you will be reloading your Windows operating System anyway…. ( dont even think of missing out that move as it could really mess things up for you!) As a good hard drive (with guarantee) as Digerati discussed, can be purchased for less than £30 (GBP) it might be worth loooking at a new one…. Regards paws