HD failure...replacement?

Art_Wolf

Laptop was running through the night and this morning was fine, turned it off. Later I boot it up to find blue screen so I simply reboot - fine again. Got what I wanted and left it running. Half an hour later suddenly get another blue screen - something about threads ending... Reboot to get blue screen again complaining about UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME.

Now when the BIOS is checked (Dell logo on the screen) it goes fine till the very end when the bar is full and appears to hang for about 15-30 seconds. Entering Ubuntu (Normal or Recovery) gives an Error 29: Disk write error and brings back to the boot loader. When XP is selected the screen goes blank for 10 seconds and procedes to the XP boot up. 24 seconds in and the blue screen appears about the UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME.
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x8339B8D0, 0xC0000015, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Entering Diagnostics and it fails when it starts DST Short Test.
Error Code : 1000-0146
Msg : Unit 0:DST Log contains previous error(s)

Googling showed that it was a problem with the hard drive dying for good ;_;
Is this normal to happen in the middle of running? Is there anyway to clear the DST Logs without being able to boot - I could not find them in setup.

The Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8600 running Ubuntu and Windows XP with Grub as the bootloader.

Looking at Dells site and the prices for hd replacments hurt >_<
€110.98 for 40G
and found Komplett had a 80GB IDE 2,5" 9,5mm HD for only €116.99

Thing is I got a 2.5" -> 3.5" IDE converter of a friend before and it did not fit the Dell HD so Im uncertain will the Komplett HD work with the laptop

So am I missing something out or is the HD dead? If so anyone had problems with 3rd party HDs in Dell Inspiron Laptops?

fatherdougalmag

Not familiar with that particular machine but it should just be a matter of getting a 2.5" IDE drive and re-installing. I recently picked up a 40GB drive in IT Direct for about €75.

greglo23

i got this recently and its the biz. as fast as a desktop and runs way cooler. http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=120500&cks=PLC

Art_Wolf

The origional was a Hitachi Travel Star 60GB 5400RPM ATI/IDE

http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=120500&cks=PLC look perfect - cheers

Art_Wolf

*jaw drops open*

right I was tinkering and left it with the hard drive out and the cd rom out and had given up, was resigning myself to purchasing a new HD but decieded to wait till tomorrow to order it.

Just put everything back in..and it booted up fine?? Currently running Disk Cleanup and will be error checking it then.

fatherdougalmag

Well make the most of your experience. You might want to go ahead and prepare for the worst anyway so you're not hanging around too long to get back up and running.

You could check your BIOS to see if there are any SMART diagnostics on your HD. That might show how things really are on the disk (at a very low level). Was certainly a good indicator for the demise of my previous HD.

Art_Wolf

Cant see anything to do with SMART diagnostics..

sadly also HD failed on me again with a new error - on reboot its back to the UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. Using a mandrake live cd I've checked it out and it appears as if the partition table is damaged. I can mount XP etc but when trying to mount Ubuntu it freezes. XP is first on the disc followed by Ubuntu and a swap partition. My guess being it cant tell where XP ends and Ubuntu begins *shurgs* hence why I cant even start booting into Ubuntu but XP starts but doesnt finish.