HP desktop system - faulty 7200.11?

[linkin]

Hi all. My best customer with his HP desktop called me today saying it would not boot. From working on this machine before, I knew it had a seagate .11 drive. Now, as soon as I unplug the SATA cable, the pooter no longer freezes at the BIOS screen. Am I right in thinking that the HDD is the problem? The owner is no power user and has likely never touched the firmware. The guy also has photos and stuff he will likely want. I guess I'll need an external enclosure?

 

[daisymtc]

It looks like the hdd. do you have another hdd to try?

By the way, you can get one of those sata/ ide to usb adaper to access to the existing hdd if it still working.
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-SATA-ID...945?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5b5da5b1

 

[linkin]

I don't have another at the moment. Once my system is up and running I can try esata and an external enclosure. Basically I just need to copy his entire user profile where he stores all his stuff.

I've already restored this system to factory defaults before so it's a simple process, but his photos and documents might be more of a problem. He'll also need a replacement drive. I hope for his sake I can access the drive.

 

[johnb35]

If you removed the hard drive and it didn't freeze then its definately the HDD. Its probably the most common issue with the pc freezing at bootup or not posting.

 

[linkin]

I guess I was right then

I should be getting the rest of my parts today, and be able to hook it up externally today. The real question is which drive he should buy as a replacement.

 

[johnb35]

I was a WD customer only years ago, then started having problems with them and moved to seagate for the longest time. Then started having issues with them and moved back to WD and happy so far. I haven't tried samsung in a really long time but most people say they have good drives now.

 

[linkin]

well oddly enough, I'll be ordering a Samsung F3. My brother has one and he's had no problems with it at all. Plus sit's cheaper than the WD and Seagate offerings, while still being as fast. It's also a 500GB one so I might even be able to try and cloneit.

 

[johnb35]

You won't be able to clone it, if the system freezes while its attached then it will either do the same in other systems or won't even get recognized.