Hard disk error message during bootup

[benmango]

Hi all,
I have a HP laptop running Vista, and today when I turned on my laptop (and during all subsequent boots) it comes up with a message:

“The SMART hard disk check has detected an imminent failure. To ensure no data loss, please backup the content immediately and run the Hard Disk Test in System Diagnostics.”

So I've ran the hard disk check and restarted the laptop and it still comes up with the above message

What I want to know:

- How do I find out which hard drive its on about? (I have 2 on here that came with the laptop - one is main 223gb one (which has 173gb free), and the other is a "recovery" hard drive that can hold 9.34gb. (9.26gb free)
- Does anyone know what my options are now?

I can't easily do a back up because I have no external hard drive. I also don't really want to fork out for one unless I really have to as I'm rather broke at the mo . I've only had the laptop 3 months (bought brand new from Currys). Should I try reformatting the hard drive? Would this potentially solve the problem? As I say, I've not had it long so there's little on the hard drives that I'd be all that fussed losing.

Any help on this would be brill - am scratching my brains out!

 

[Andy98765]

I would get the laptop changed/sorted by Curry's. Your two hard drives are one, it is partitioned to look like two drives.

 

[BlkKnight]

I'd pick up an external asap & backup.

The SMART may relate to the PCB or the disk heads rather than the platters - checkdisk won't fix these errors.

As above, you only have ONE hard disk which is partitioned into two logical drives. If this gives up, you've lost everything.

If you are still operational, I still strongly recommend buying an external for a backup.

If you hand your machine in for repair they will erase your data anyway.

 

[EndlessWaves]

I would get the laptop changed/sorted by Curry's. Your two hard drives are one, it is partitioned to look like two drives.

Some larger laptops do come with two hard drives, but one is unlikely to be 10GB so you do have two partitions on a single hard drive. It's an easy assumption to make that they were two hard drives as windows doesn't differentiate between drives and partitons most of the time.

Basically your hard drive is failing, it's just bad luck. If you'd bought it from somewhere with good customer service you could have gotton it replaced under warranty with your data restored back to where it should be but as you bought it from curries I'd make a copy (or two) of your data as well as burning recovery disks for the system before you take it back to have the hard drive replaced.