PC Hardware Hard Drive Diagnostics says SMART Check and Short DST Not Installed

[RichChs]

Computer died after power surge.  Can open to diagnostics but fails hard drive tests by saying SMART Check and Short DST Not Installed.  Memory check is OK.  Is there a way to recover?  I have lost my recovery memory key to compound the problem but wonder if it is worth any likely repair.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

What you can try if you have access to another Windows PC running W7 64 bit or newer would be to create a bootable W10 installation flash drive using the media creation tool from the link below.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

Make the 64 bit installation media.

When you boot from the installation media, if the hard drive is not dead, hopefully, you can reinstall W10.

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option.

If W10 can't find the hard drive to install on, you will have to see if replacing it fixes the problem so you can reinstall Windows.

[RichChs]

Thanks for the information.  Helped me figure out that the hard drive is just dead.  I appreciate your response.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

In rare circumstances it could also be the disk controller, so hopefully it isn't that because that would require a motherboard replacement.