Hard drive failure

I have been in a long running battle with Tescos regarding an off the shelf computer I brought from them.

I was in the store to day as the computer would not boot and before that and ever since I got the computer it has been crashing.

The man put in the recovery disk and the computer did pull up some menus. He said that this proof that the problem with the computer was software. However, on reading from the recovery disk does this prove that the hard disk is ok?

 

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Not necessarily because you could have a bad cylinder inside your HD and that too could cause it to stop working as well. The cylinder won't let it boot up but the data is still on the HD so can be seen but not accessed.

 

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It could be both. But crashing is usually a result of errors with the software. If it would be a hardware related problem the computer would either notify you by saying that the boot disk could not be found or simply nothing would turn on or run as is your case. Hope this helps. If not please do tell.

 

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If you've had a problem since you brought it they should take it back and give you a refund, doesn't matter if it's a hardware fault or software, how long have you had it? Is it a laptop or a desktop?

Does it always fail to boot now? Have you tried restoring it to the original settings, booting in safe mode, or using the last known good configuration?

What menus exactly? Did it boot? More importantly did he try any of the above?

As far as I can tell, no. Sounds to me like he hasn't got a lot of experience with computers and just fobbed you off.

 

When it didn't boot, did it give any sort of error message or did it beep a number of times?

Also, "crash" is a pretty generic word. Can you explain what it does when it crashes? Does it crash randomly, or can you associate it with a certain action?

 

As others have stated, I don't see how he could tell it was only a software problem, by just booting a recovery disk. It could easily have bad spots on the hard drive that could cause the same issue, and would require a disk scan to determine that.

Trying booting from your windows cd, and hitting "R" to go the recovery console and run chkdsk /r.

 

wow, cheers for the response here totally knackered at the moment but will set it up tomorrow for some further investigations and get back to you

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There really should be a tech support sub-forum. It seems like we have a few tech savvy people that can dish out some good advice. We could moderators as well

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I started to set something up on the Wiki, but unfortuately someone has completely destroyed it. I might have to work on that.

 

Wiki here? Or some where else? I mean just making another forum here would be fine.

 

We have a Wiki here, but some ex-members thought it would be fun to completely fuck it up. Just click on the Encyclopedia at the top left of this page.

 

Hmmm... But I still find a forum where people can be posting their problems and questions would be good as well. Btw should I got 800 or 1066 for my RAM?

 

That would be nice, Stryder would be the man to talk to.

I'd go for 1066, unless someone else knows a reason not to.

 

This may not piss you off, but if it was me i'd rip the guys nuts off. You bought it off their shelf and it doesn't work right away. Fuck them. Hand them that computer and just say "fix/broken give me a new fucking computer". You are a customer and end user, why do you give a fuck if the computer can use a recovery disk, that doesn't mean shit. You probably have bad memory and it fucked up your HD severe. Or just a bunch of bad sectors. Either way it should be covered even if it was used - via a 30 day warranty. Probably all the hardware is for sure still under warranty.

Sorry for the f-bombs but this shit REALLY pisses me off with my industry. This kind of sloppy shit is why there are some seriously lame asses working/making money in the industry and giving all I.T Pros a bad name.

Do like Mac said and run a chkdsk with all the switches. You will have to reboot for it to run. If it's a memory problem this won't tell you shit though, if it is successful.

I'd just give them supreme hell. I don't know how the average Joe, gets by with the shitty service nowadays.

 

I agree, NF, if they don't fix it for you, tear off their nuts, and wear them around your neck on a string...as warning for all other half-assed IT guys.

It's one reason I go WAY out of my way to use my whole ass when giving tech support. I'm on a mission from God, like the blues brothers to bring back old fashioned customer service to tech support....a la a 50's style service station. (thats what they called them back then...service stations not gas stations, because you actually recieved service

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PAGING STRYDER!!! If you can read this please PM me.