no operating system???

seanandnik

seanandnik

New Member
i recently got my daughter a hp xt375 for xmas, it has been working fine until today after we installed a few games for her. there was a weird click, click, click it sounded like the hard drive was spinning but getting nowhere, so i shut it down and pressed the tiny reset button on the bottom of the laptop with a pen. i rebooted and got a cursor blinking with a "no operating system detected" message, after a few more reboots i now get a windows xp beginning screen with the blue light thing scrolling across the front and the hard drive spins and spins but gets no further and stays on this screen, what is up here? i bought it used from a friend so i cant return it, help me please she is all excited for her new laptop and now this.
 
Mattu

Mattu

Member
It sounds like the hard drive went bad:(. I think that clicking sound is the click of death. If you have your XP CD try reinstalling Windows or repairing with the repair option on the CD. Just put the CD in when you first start up the computer. You might have to get into BIOS setup to make the computer boot from the CD.
 
seanandnik

seanandnik

New Member
bad hd

i also think it is the hard drive, it loads to the xp window but then clicks away forever, how much you think to fix it?
 
calumn

calumn

New Member
I wouldn't suggest getting a new hard drive straight away.
If there are no files on it that you need then get hold of an XP install or reinstall disk (your friend may have one) and try reinstalling XP. If you get errors during the install with things like it can't write to the HD then the hard drive is damaged. If it also doesn't run well or you still here the clicking noise and it generaly gets messed up then the hard drive is bad.
If none of these work then you should get a new hard drive. it shouldn't cost that much becuase they are cheap now.
You could also try bringing it to a computer repair person so that he can see whats wrong with it because even though it looks like the hard drive it might not be. So you could end up buying a new HD and still having a broken computer.
Calum.
 
calumn

calumn

New Member
jp198780 said:
deffinately sounds like ur HD is bad :( ...

you can get a decent sized HD off ebay 4 cheap...
Click to expand...

Yes but it might not be actually damaged. It may be fixable by reformatting it. So you could try reformatting it because then you can be sure you dont waste your money. If they get a new hd from ebay it may be cheap but it would have cost them less to reformat it. So I think it would be a better idea to do a reformat.
 
R

Robertw18

New Member
If a Hard Dive is clicking this quickly, I wouldn't try reinstalling the OS on it, because it will most likely continue to fail, and get worse over time... I would take it back to the store if it's within your first 14 days... and get it exchanged... You really don't want to run the risk of getting everything back on there, and getting everything the way you want it, just to have it fail on you again. If you're outside your 14 days, but still within your first year, contact the mfg, they'll usually offer to swap the drive out... be ready to loose the computer for 2 + weeks though. :/ sorry.... Merry Christmas!
 
calumn

calumn

New Member
seanandnik said:
i bought it used from a friend so i cant return it.
Click to expand...

He can't return it. So he has got nothing to lose by trying to reinstall the os. If he tries to reinstall it and it fails then he will know that he has to buy a new hd. But if it works and the hd is fine then he saved himself a lot of money. Read it before you post.
 
R

Robertw18

New Member
I'm sorry, I guess I didn't see that line. If the computer is less than a year old, the mfg would still be able to fix it. Trust me though, I've dealt with enough failing HDs to know that once they start to fail, it's just a matter of time before they go for good. It may be a week or 3 months, but if it's clicking he's working on barrowed time.
 
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