Laptop not booting

[n3onis]

Hello,

I've been asked to fix a laptop that doesn't boot and I've narrowed it down to this;
Hard disk is relatively new, I switched it in the same laptop not too long ago, when it was corrupted. It worked fine after and now I'm assuming there's a problem with the hard drive again, or possibly the motherboard (since this happened twice in ~6 months).
First I tried to just remove and reinstall the hard drive and RAM. No difference.

1. The laptop doesn't recognize the hard drive as bootable. It shows under the boot menu, but when you try to boot from it, it just says there is no bootable device. I tried the same drive in my laptop and it booted to Windows loading screen, but it never went past that. It was just loading forever. My hard disk booted correctly in that laptop.

2. I figured I'd try a Windows reinstall, in case there is a corrupted boot file. But when I booted from the USB stick, it's stuck on "Preparing to run the Setup program". It doesn't go past that screen.

So, I guess I should run a Memtest and disk diagnostic. If I don't see anything wrong with the drive, could it be the motherboard?

 

[notlim981]

Usually when there is a problem with the motherboard the laptop doesn't even turn on. It could be either a bad RAM stick or a problem with the SATA connector.

 

[n3onis]

Tested the memory with Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and no errors found after 2 passes. Testing the disk next.

 

[n3onis]

Testing the drive with Vivard now and I'm getting a load of errors right away. I guess it is the HDD.
Why did it not even detect the disk as bootable on one laptop, but started loading Windows on the other? Even though it never loaded it, it seems pretty weird.

 

[notlim981]

The problem must be on the logic board I guess.

 

[n3onis]

I'm at 800.000 sectors out of 1.000.000.000 and the past 140 have shown an error. And it's still at 0% progress. Should I even continue testing / try remapping or whatever? Or is it better buying a new disk? Also, could there be anything else wrong, since 2 disks were corrupted in the same laptop in the past 6-12 months, can't remember exactly.

Update: 250 bad sectors and still not stopping.

 

[n3onis]

So, I think I'm going to end the test. It's already at 300 bad sectors and at 0% progress. Should I even try remaping or do anything, or is this HDD dead?

 

[notlim981]

So, I think I'm going to end the test. It's already at 300 bad sectors and at 0% progress. Should I even try remaping or do anything, or is this HDD dead?

You should by now remove the HDD and give it an eternal rest. RIP.