Multiple hard drive failures

kristen81

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Aug 1, 2014
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Sorry so long!

I have a Dell Inspiron n5010 that I purchased around February of 2011 (I think). It has an Intel i3, running Windows 7. The laptop had mostly been used for homework, internet, and Microsoft Office programs and similar things.
In April the original hard drive failed, so I ordered a new one, that drive lasted about two weeks and also failed. So I returned that one and received a replacement. The replacement worked for around 2 months, from the end of April until the beginning of July. So I returned it again, thinking it was an issue with the hard drive (the two replacements were the same type) and ordered a new one.
The new one arrived last Saturday and today when I turned the laptop on, Windows started loading, the drive started clicking, and that was as far as it got. When the drive stopped clicking, the hard drive light stayed on but there wad no nose and nothing else happening. After waiting a few minutes with no activity (starting windows still on the screen), I turned off and back on a few minutes later and still couldn't get past the starting Windows screen, and the clicking happens every time it tries to load Windows, but Windows never actually loads. Each hard drive failure was similar to this.
I have tried to watch out for excessive heat and have not noticed anything or of the ordinary. The laptop is very rarely moved around, in fact, it had been sitting in the same spot since I put the newest hard drive in. Many posts that I read mentioned heat and handling. What other things can I look for or test that could be causing this to keep happening?

Thanks for your help!
 

Shaun o

Distinguished
I will give you a personal warning if any or all of the drives were a Segate stay away from them.
Its not just heat and a mechanical fault that can happen to a hard drive, such things a having bad memory in the laptop can cause data stored on the drive to become corrupted in any form or manner.
It can create error where when reading data where is was written from memory to a drive it becomes corrupted.
The other cause can be a Physical fault of the laptop chip set on the motherboard causing the problem.
Your hard drive is controlled by a chip on the motherboard laptop.

So if it becomes faulty then it corrupts information of the hard drive.
A drive will hang and loading will stop when the data in question has been corrupted.

You should at least when in windows right click on your drive.
Select properties.
Click the tools tab and check for errors.
Restart the laptop and the drive will be scanned for errors.
If your met with a few errors and files that need fixing you have data corruption going on.


 

junkeymonkey

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Nov 11, 2013
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not to say its so , but each new drive fails up front like that something's wrong deeper .. but you may check with dell to see if they allow a aftermarket drive to be used in that they can be funny on these things [dell may have a firmware on the drives it uses and with out that on the drive it may just fail to work]

 

kristen81

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Aug 1, 2014
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Thank you both for your responses.
The first two hard drives were HGST and the current one is Western Digital.
The problem with checking in Windows is that I can no longer get into Windows, I get to the leading screen and that's it.
And I totally understand what you're saying about Dell possibly not allowing aftermarket drives, but if that was the case, would it allow the drives to work for a short time before falling?
 

junkeymonkey

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Nov 11, 2013
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if it was not for spell check no telling how mine would look

as I said no telling what dell may have done -- there copy of windows may not be the same as one you buy at a store?? also it may get to a point that dell says this don't match up with us and it stops right there ??
or it may be something wrong on the mother board and no matter what you do its just time for a new one ?? all the dells-hp-acers- in the prebuilt types of computers only gurentee there products to work as is out of there box and anything past that is at your own risk and can be considered ''tampering'' witch can void your warranty .. there in to selling new computers and they ''fix'' things to insure that's what you do

I wish I could be more help on this , but that's how I find there things to work

 

kristen81

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Aug 1, 2014
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You're right, it probably is just time for a new one, I was just hoping that would not be the case because that's not really in the budget. But so far changing the hard drive over and over has gotten me nowhere and is turning into a big pain.
 

junkeymonkey

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Nov 11, 2013
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try the best buy geek squad or local shop .. with out being there for a hands on its all going to be guess work anyway ..

was looking over at dell and there not any help on this at all like this and the ''here'' link he gave I did not see anything close to replaceing the hard drive

Yes, it looks like a procedure to replace the hard drive. I watched a technician do this on my system, my hard drive is in a similar place, and if you're careful, it really isn't hard to do. If you want to see, instructions are HERE.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19433635.aspx
 

kristen81

Estimable
Aug 1, 2014
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4,510
It is a pain to replace, but I'm getting pretty good at it. I was hoping for a cheap, semi-easy fix but I think I may be out of luck. Thank you so much for all your help, it really is appreciated.