Hard Drive failure

[meadowcat]

Did hard drive test on daughter's Pavilion dv7.  I am getting the failure ID 0G8604-5MX8RE-QFPH4K-61D003   Short DST passed.  Long DST failed.

Can anyone tell me what this failure code means?  Thanks.

[CherylG]

@meadowcat

The hard drive has failed/is failing and will need to be replaced. If you are still in warranty HP will replace it. If not a retail 2.5" laptop SATA hard drive can be used-Western Digital,Seagate,Toshiba,etc

Just be sure to get one of at least equal capacity as the original in order to use HP Recovery Media to install Windows. It can be larger, but not smaller capacity.For instance if you have a 500GB hdd you could use a 750GB hdd but not a 320GB hdd.

If you previuosly did the free upgrade to Windows 10 you have a lifetime digital license stored on Microsoft servers along with hardware id of the laptop. You can use the free Download tool to create a Windows 10 installer on USB flash drive to boot the laptop and install Windows on a new hard drive.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

[meadowcat]

Thank you so much for your reply and the information about Windows 10.  That is good to know.  I don't know if she had installed Windows 10.  I'm sure the computer is well out of warranty .  There is a Windows 7 sticker on it but I don't know if she had upgraded.  I suppose there is no chance of retrieving any data from the hard drive.  Thanks again.

[mdklassen]

>   I suppose there is no chance of retrieving any data from the hard drive. 

It depends. 

A disk-drive that is in "imminent failure" status may still boot into Windows, and you may still be able to copy some/most/all of the Personal Files to a USB memory-stick. Try it, ASAP, before you get "permanent" failure.

[meadowcat]

I think it must be too late.  Can't get it to go into Windows at all.  She only brought it to me today.  I know she has an external hard drive so hopefully she has most things backed up.  Thanks for your reply.

[mdklassen]

> Can't get it to go into Windows at all.

It might not be "too late". 

Starting Windows requires the reading of many files from the disk-drive.

But, if that fails, it might still be possible to remove the disk-drive from the computer, and attach it as a secondary disk-drive in another computer, and to read ONLY the user's Personal Files:

1. In the other computer, access the drive-letter for the "root" folder;

2. Access the 'USERS' folder;

3. Access the folder that has the name of the owner of the computer.

    Windows may make you "take ownership" to access the files in that folder.

4. Copy them.

Good luck! Bon chance! Ha det bra!

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

@meadowcat

Passing Short DST may be a good sign of a chance to rescue files if she has important files, photos she did not back up to her external. Remove the hdd and insert it into a USB HDD Enclosure such as> THIS 

Plug it into usb port of a working machine and you should be able to browse the hdd just as you would any internal hdd. Move quickly as there is no way to know how much life is left in the hdd. Copy any files she needs to hdd of host machine.