HDD SMART Failure BIOHD-8

[karlm14]

Hi people advice please. I have a HP Pavillion Slimline that I've tried to fix for a friend. When computer starts up it goes past the operating system loading screen (Where it DOESNT have the Vista logo as it normally would) and then just hangs on a blue screen as if its trying too boot, I presume the HDD failure has corrupt some OS start up files. She's quite keen to keep the data on the HDD (holiday photo's etc). When I run the built in HP Diagnostics tool it shows that it has failed a SMART test with error code 'BIOHD-8'. If I remember correctly it is a Seagate HDD but I would have too open it too check again. It also won't boot from a CD which I find strange. Would it be simple enough to buy a new HDD with a Vista boot CD, and using the license key on the tower, re-installing the OS and then see If I can recover data of corrupt drive by using it as a slave? I could probably have a good go at this, I have a little background in this but limited knowledge. Thanks for any help, please ask if you need any more information.

 

[Gman496]

If it won't boot from CD it is possible that this feature is not set in the BIOS, have you checked?

A new drive and a clean install of the same OS that was originally installed using their genuine key will be ok.

I would remove the dodgy drive and fit it to an external caddy without delay and see if you can read it on another machine with a view to recovering photos Etc.

 

[karlm14]

I did check the BIOS and it all seemed ok mate, thanks for that advice - I think I have an external HDD case kicking around somewhere I never thought of that! I'll look into getting a new hard drive for them.

 

[Gman496]

You are going to have to sort that boot from CD issue unless the machine supports boot from USB..... in order to be able to do a clean install on the new drive.

 

[Gman496]

Check BIOS to see if there is an option to turn on\off boot menu display. There should be a screen splash at startup displaying an "F" key to display boot options.