Hard Disk 1 (301) error

[brokendv7]

I received the Hard Disk 1 (301) error message today when turning on my laptop. It says something along the lines of "the hard disk has detected an imminent failure". By doing a few searches I noticed that many other people have the same issue but my question is alittle different. 

My laptop is a DV7 - 4070US (windows 7), purchased in 2010 so its out of warrenty by now. Can anyone here tell me what the issue is exactly? A broken or almost broken hard drive?

Also since im not much of a computer person what would be the best way to fix this problem? Should I just take my laptop to a computer repair shop and have them change out the hard drive?

Last question; my latop comes with a built in recovery feature where i can reinstall windows by pressing F11, if i change out the hard drive will this feature still be available?

thanks ahead of time

[DavidPK · Accepted solution]

Hi,

To answer your questions in order:

1.  The 301 error code will be a Smart or Disk Self Test failure - in either case, it would indicate that the Hard Drive is failing and needs to be replaced.  It's impossible to estimate the remaining lifespan of the drive - it could carry on for a few months or fail tomorrow.

2. & 3.  I would recommend replacing the Hard Drive yourself - it's a pretty straight forward procedure and will save the expense of paying someone else to do this.  A brief overview is detailed below.

The drive on the link below is an example of one that would be fine for your notebook.

750Gb Notebook Hard Drive.

The procedure to replace the Hard Drive starts on Page 63 of your Maintenance & Service Guide.

To reinstall the operating system on the new drive, you will need to use your set of Recovery Discs - the new Hard Drive will be blank, so the f11 option ( which launches the Recovery Process from a partition on the drive ) will not work.

The procedure for using Recovery Discs to reinstall the Operating System is described in the HP document Here.

If you don't have your Recovery Discs, you can order a replacement set using the link below.

Order HP Recovery Discs.

If you have any problem with this link, order them directly from HP.

If you live in the US, contact HP Here.

If you are in another part of the world, start Here.

Regards,

DP-K

[brokendv7]

DavidPK,

thanks for the response

I went ahead and called HP, ordered the hard drive which included the recovery disk.

looking over the instructions im pretty sure I can fix it myself

If i have any issues its a good feeling knowing I can come on here and get answers from knowledgeable individuals.

all the best

[DavidPK]

Hi,

You're welcome and just post back if you run into any problems

Best regards,

DP-K

[wraja111]

Hi,

      When my laptop start it appears on screen that your Hard Disk 1 smart (301).The system hard Disk has detected an imminent failure to ensure no data loss please backup the contents immediately

After this error i also run the System Diagnostic quick and comprehensive hard disk test and passed but, despite that the error message appears at startup of the windows...

i have important data and hard disk is of 500 GB but the laptop is not under warranty.

Model of my PC is HP Pavilion G7-1219 Notebook pc.

Can any one help me to make me out of it ,please ???????

[npw05001]

Hello wraja111,

I see that you are having a problem with the hard drive on your HP computer. The 301 error message you are receiving indicates the hard drive is failing. There is not a timetable on when it will fail. Your best option is to back up your data an replace the hard drive. You will need the recovery discs for your computer to reload the operating system.

[wraja111]

ok thanx.

suppose i made backup of all the relevant and important files and use the hard drives till it works and then replace the hard drive when it become dead ???????????????

[npw05001]

That shouldn't be a problem at all. The drive may last for another 6 months. The error message that the drive will eventually fail.

[Duce1990]

I have a hp pavilion laptop , it's a dv6 on pressing start message comes up hard disc does not exist ? Any ideas how to cure this or explain what it men's ? Thanks

[npw05001]

Hello Duce1990,

I see that you are having a problem with the hard drive on your HP computer. I would like to help with this issue but I need some information.

Can you provide full model and product number of the computer? Here is a link that shows how to find that information.