hard disk crashed

[Castellente]

My hard drive has crashed and I ended up buying a new laptop. My question is, is it worth buying a new hard drive to keep this laptop or is it just junk? 

[Dragon-Fur]

@Castellente

Commentary

Whether you save your mystery computer from the recycle bin is entirely a personal decision.

All the risks and benefits depend on a lot of factors, perhaps including:

• The original cost of the computer,
• The age of the computer,
• Your skill set,
• Your level of interest in the subject,
• Your willingness to spend time and money on a dead computer,
• Your NEED for the (now replaced) computer in your current situation,
• And anything else you can think of to help you make the decision

If the only problem is the crashed drive (impossible to accurately diagnose remotely),

AND

If you love the computer

AND

If you are willing to spend money on the computer

AND

If you are willing to do the work necessary (or send the computer to a shop for repair)

THEN

Yeah, it might be worth all the hassle.

If you have moved on and you no longer care about your non-working computer

THEN

Box up said-dead computer and send it to the local Recycle company

OR

Donate the computer to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army type charity.   

NOTE:  Goodwill and Salvation Army are large charities in the USA that take computers and support the communities in which they are located.

Thank you for participating in the HP Community Forum.

We are a community of HP enthusiasts dedicated to supporting HP devices and technology.

[Castellente]

So, I was told that the hard drive crashed, but the message I get on the screen is, the "windows has failed to start" and "reinstall the windows program". I no longer have the windows disc nor the code. Is it worth going and buying 7 or 10?

Joy

[Dragon-Fur]

@Castellente

Please provide your full Model Name and Product Number of the dead computer.

Help to find Product Number:

• Identify my Notebook Model

and

• HP Devices – Find Product Number

We can see what one of our hardware experts say.

@CherylG -- any Words of Wisdom for Joy?

Thank you for participating in the HP Community Forum.

We are a community of HP enthusiasts dedicated to supporting HP devices and technology.

[Castellente]

Pavilion dv6 , Model: dv6t-7000   Product: A3E87AV Serial:   [personal information removed]

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1,2, 3 these talk about the disc.

status: 0xc000000f

Info; An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuation. 

[mdklassen]

> ... the message I get on the screen is, the "windows has failed to start" and "reinstall the windows program".

In a way, this is "good news".  Although Windows will not start, your Personal Files are still intact, and can be "recovered".

So, don't "discard" the disk-drive (and the rest of the computer) just yet.

If you share the model-number with us, it's possible that you can download a copy of the original Operating System, for free. Or, you might be able to order a copy of the O.S. from HP, or from a third-party company.

EDIT: I looked at: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-dv6-6000-quad-edition-entertainment-not...

but HP does not offer a download for your Pavilion DV6.

Instead, search at  www.ComputerSurgeons.com 

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

@Castellente

 The DV6T 7000 is a nice laptop-one of my 2 favorites out of all the ones I have used over the years. Have you tried tapping away at F11 key immediately after powering on to see if you can boot into recovery to reinstall Windows? Instructions click here System Recovery

Of course as Dragon-Fur stated it is user preference but if this were my laptop I would replace the hard drive and order Recovery Media -if you didn't make your set.

Hard drive= maybe $50

Recovery Media=$27  click here> Recovery Media

[CherylG]

I forgot to mention-the hard drive is super easy to replace on this model. Maintenance & Service Guide shows how.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03582006

[mdklassen]

> I forgot to mention-the hard drive is super easy to replace on this model.

Two thoughts:

1. If you lose the keys to your home, you don't have to buy a new home.  There are ways to get in, to retrieve the contents.

     If Windows fails to boot, you don't have to buy a new disk-drive. There are ways to get in, to retrieve the contents.

2. It might be a good idea to buy a new disk-drive, remove the old one, and install Windows to the new one.

     This preserves all your current Personal Files (installing to your current disk-drive will probably wipe them out!),

     and it replaces an out-of-warranty disk-drive by an in-warranty, newer, faster, larger capacity disk-drive.

     After installing, you can use an external disk-drive-to-USB adapter, to temporarily connect the old disk-drive, to copy all your personal files.

[CherylG]

@mdklassen

 Some valid points-but I only answered the question the OP asked- whether the laptop was worth spending money on to fix. Which, imo, it is.

1-first suggestion-try booting into Recovey, which would offer a chance to back up files if desired.

2-if booting into Recovery fails, replace hdd.