Hard drive failed on HP Notebook (out of warranty)

[alicat77]

Hi,

Can someone advise please. It looks (following a PC Hardware diagnostics check) that the Hard Drive on my HP Notebook15-db0599sa has failed. I'm outside it's warranty as bought it in 2018 and didn't extend it. Is this likely to be fixable and how expensive will it be?

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Yes, it is fixable, and relatively inexpensive if you fix it yourself.

Below is the link to the service manual where you can find the hard drive removal and replacement procedure.

Maintenance and Service Guide HP 15 Laptop PC

You may want to consider replacing the 2.5" mechanical hard drive with a better performing 2.5" SSD.

If you can live with 500 GB of storage space, this drive provides excellent performance for the price.

Western Digital WDS500G2B0A WD Blue 3D NAND Internal SSD 2.5 Inch SATA, 500 GB: Amazon.co.uk: Comput...

After you replace the drive, you can reinstall W10 by making a bootable USB recovery drive using the HP cloud recovery tool with another Windows PC running W7 64 bit or newer.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility...

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know how much a PC repair shop would charge for a hard drive replacement/OS reinstall.

Probably at least 150 quid.

[WAWood]

@alicat77 

Let me give you the BAD news first.  Yes, it IS possible to repair a failed hard drive -- but you have to send it off to a special data recovery service and the cost starts at $1000 -- that's right, $1000!  That's because they disassemble the drive in a clean-room and use very expensive hardware to recover the data.  Obviously, not a good choice for a drive that can be replaced for $50 USD.

You need to replace the drive.

Once you have the replacement drive, read the information below about HP Could Recovery to be used to restore your PC to working condition:

If your PC is a 2016 model or newer, you should see if you can make a bootable USB recovery drive using the HP cloud recovery tool on a working PC. The recovery drive can then be used to install Win10 and the HP drivers and utilities that originally came with your PC. Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

--------------------------------

If the HP Cloud Recovery is not available or does not work, you may have to look into ordering HP Recovery Media -- which is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities. You have to order these from HP; they can not be downloaded.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click "Update"

If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the + symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Support:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true