My laptop crashed or is crashing and I think I need a new hard drive.    It was starting about once every few days, so I was able to get all the important files off of it, but I have not been able to get it to start now for a few days.    I can't find my recovery cd's so I think I am going to buy this to try to see if I have a Windows issue:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181503320330?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181503320330?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT



And then I will look at hard drives.   How do I find out what kind (physical size?  Sata or ???)of hard drive I need without taking it apart first?    Any recommendations?   Places to buy from?    



This is the computer that I am having problems with:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02949403&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02949403&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

This is for the kids' computer that they use to watch video on YouTube and such.   Is it possible to get a virus from YouTube videos?   It started to really slow down a few weeks ago and then all of a sudden it had problems starting up.   Once it did start up, I ran a "cleaner" on it to get rid of the junk...there was a lot.....and it helped a little,but now I can't get it to boot at all.   I pressed the ESC key as it booted a few times and did the hard drive test and it failed, then passed and then failed one more time.



Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.   Thank!

The machine uses a 2.5" SATA drive, which is pretty much the laptop standard.

Also, you may be able to purchase O/S and recovery media directly from HP.  See Here

Mike

When you buy a new drive, get a Western Digital.

Some of the HP laptops I dealt with had a drive diag in the BIOS.  Hit F1 or F2, or whatever it uses to get into BIOS, then check for a diag tab.  If the drive is bad, it'll spit out a return code (usually code 7.)

I did do that, and 2 of the 3 times it said "Hard disk 1 quick (303)"



What that heck does that mean, because it sure isn't quick.



 

It's brokened. (technical term)

Link to HP support site:
HP 303 error

Here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-EVO-Series-2-5-Inch-MZ-7TE250BW/dp/B00E3W1726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409003316&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+840



SSD won't die when your kids drop the laptop. You're welcome.

They need to start making laptop displays out of SSD

There is a real down side to SSD's.  Although dropping them won't hurt them, they still have a limited life expectancy.  A mechanical drive will almost always give you some warning before it fails, as did the OP's.  He was able to save his data.  An SSD will not.  They quit like light bulbs.

That may be, but the benefits of SSDs outweigh the risks. It helps that I have a backup that runs once a week.



 

Me too, but most people don't.  IT is switching all of the laptops at work to SSD's.   When one fails, they restore it with a stock image.  

And the users data should be stored on the server not on the laptop

They don't allow porn.  

Encrypted virtual machines.