Hard disk failure and boot failure

Question

Background

• I'm a computer novice and received a hard disk failure message
• I have a Windows 7 computer (purchased in August 2010)
• I can think of three options: (1) hire someone to replace the hard disk; (2) get a new computer; (3) use my other computer

My question:

I’m leaning towards Option 3. What are the pros and cons of throwing out the entire computer vs. only throwing out the hard disk? Are there other options? As a computer novice, any help is greatly appreciated.

Additional information:

My computer was on when this message from Windows popped up:

Windows detected a hard disk problem. Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss, and then contact the computer manufacturer to determine if you need to repair or replace the disk.

Immediate steps

Because a disk failure will cause you to lose all programs, files, and documents on the disk, you should back up your important information immediately. Try not to use your computer until you have repaired or replaced the hard disk.

The following hard disk is reporting failure:

Disk Name: ST3500410AS ATA Device

Volume: C:\

I backed up the files (but did not know to create a system image and a system repair disk). I saw this (second) message from windows:

Replace or repair the hard disk

After backup is complete, please shut down the computer and repair or >replace the faulty disk.

Note: try not to use your computer until you have repaired or replaced the hard disk.

I left the computer on all night. In the morning, I saw a black screen with the following text:

PXE-E53: No boot filename received

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent.

Boot Failure Press any key to continue_

I pressed ENTER and saw a similar message. I pressed ENTER and later pressed CTRL + ALT + DEL and saw similar messages.

I don’t know if I have a SSD or HDD. I followed this link to open System Information. Under "Components" -> "Storage" -> "Disk" it said:

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer    (Standard disk drives)
Model   ST3500410AS ATA Device
Bytes/Sector    512
Media Loaded    Yes
Media Type  Fixed hard disk

Answer 1

Well, we can likely say for certain that the hard disk is effectively dead. Good thing that you took the warning seriously and backed up your files; lots of people don't take the warning signs seriously, and consequently we get numerous questions about how to recover data from damaged media, to which the best answer is often "restore your most recent backup onto new media". What you did was pretty much a textbook example of what to do in light of suspected imminent storage failure. (One thing I'd encourage future readers to consider is that if you already have a backup, you should refresh it, but do so in such a manner that the previous copy remains consistent in case the drive you are copying from fails part-way through the backup process. If it does, you'll at least have the most recent full copy in a good, consistent state; anything you can get out of the failed backup will then be a bonus.)

Let me start out by stating that replacing the hard disk in a desktop system isn't difficult. (It isn't necessarily difficult in a laptop either, but the variance is much greater.) You don't necessarily even need to hire someone to do it, if you just take it nice and slow. In most desktop systems, the hard disk is a single physical device with a few mounting screws (almost always Phillips head) holding it in place and two cables (power and data) connected to it. Replacing it involves unplugging the cables, removing the screws, sliding out the old hard disk, sliding in the new one and reattaching everything. Someone skilled can do it in five minutes; I would suspect that most people can do it in 20-30 minutes even with no real prior knowledge. At the level of "replace parts", computers really aren't very complicated. Basically, pretty much everything is physically designed so that it only fits the correct way. All modern personal computers use SATA which is much easier to work with than the old IDE or SCSI cabling.

A hard disk is a lot less expensive than a new computer. (A hard disk represents something like a quarter of the cost of a mid-line computer, mostly depending on the performance of the computer and the storage capacity of the hard disk.) The choice of whether to replace the hard disk or get a new computer basically boils down to whether you are otherwise happy with that system, or if you feel it is time for an upgrade.

• If you are happy with your system, and just want it back to working order, I would strongly suggest getting a new hard disk and installing it. You can either try yourself to install it (like I said, take it nice and slow and it isn't all that difficult) or you can pay someone to do it. Either will almost certainly be cheaper than buying a whole new computer. Like RMarkwald said in a comment, consider getting a SSD rather than a traditional, "rotational" hard disk; they cost more per gigabyte of storage, but can give an older system a significant performance boost. SSDs have historically had a reputation for often failing early and not tolerating use very well; almost any model available today is fine for almost any desktop use, but don't dismiss backups anyway because anything can fail.
• If your old system is starting to become dated and you feel you would benefit from something newer, then consider just replacing the computer. Unless you know what you are doing, outright upgrading an old system piecemeal is rarely worth the money and hassle.
• If you are okay with using the other computer, then of course there is not necessarily any reason to buy anything. There's no benefit to buying new "just because". Sure, it's a shiny new toy, but you are likely to soon forget most about that while working to actually get things done.

Keep in mind that if you have a desktop system and get a SSD, you may need a 3.5-inch-to-2.5-inch mounting bracket set to make it fit. Most desktop hard disks are 3.5 inch form factor, and few SSDs are larger than 2.5 inch form factor (some are smaller and would require further special adapters). These adapters are just (usually metal) brackets with screw holes in the correct places, and cost very little.