Dell/Tesco PC & new hard drive

hogshead

I bought a PC from Tesco back in Aug of last year which a few nights ago failed to operate. After much trial & error & 100mins of 0845 calls to a call centre I have been advised the hard drive is faulty & a new one has been despatched.

I am to fit it & have a guided call regarding reinstalling items which were on the original drive ( factory settings )
Is it normal for a drive to not last the 1st year?

I also asked that since the PC is still under warranty who is responsible for retrieving data on the faulty drive? The reply was it was at my cost!

I guess I now need take both drives to a company & have the data transfered.
Can anyone shed any light on how much this might cost & how long it takes.

Thanks

posted_2

If the drive is really dead, your data is gone (unless you pay 100's to a company to recovery it)

What are the symptoms, it could just be corrupt, in which case recovering data is easier.

Customers are responsible for backing up, drives can fail at any time.

What brand and size of hard disk is inside?

hogshead

From my very basic knowledge I can see it's a Western Digital 320.0GB

Original drive is out of the system but from what I can remember we went through some repair proccesses using f12, which all failed.
Most of the data is pictures ( I KNOW) so will have to part with the cash.

rsykes2000

The drive may be useable if put in as a secondary drive - it might just be the boot sector that has gone. If you connect it to another of the SATA channels, can you see if when your machine is up and running in Windows ? Drives can and do fail, but normally within a short period of time after first use or several years later, it is a bit unusual (but definitely not unknown) for one to fail in under a year.
As for data retrieval, this can cost many many hundreds.

Pssst

I think its pretty rare for a drive to fail after such a short period. Is it REALLY faulty? I have a box in my cupboard with maybe 8 old HDs of various sizes. I'll bet i could plug any of them in and it would still work and they get clattered about in there with all the other junk.

Not sure about the fit it yourself and guided install either!

posted_2

What was the original symptom?

hogshead

I am rubbish with PC but all I know is it froze the other evening. Pressing the fire up button on the front of the tower you could hear it try & start but nothing so I tried again the following morning & it failed to work although did start up.
Called Dell ( via Tesco but I am sure it was an Indian call centre as all operators I spoke with were indian NOT that this should make any difference )
I am wondering if I put it back in & try to start it again ( I had to remove it via advice over the phone too )
I am not keen to install myself at all.
Wonder if I should have called a different Dell call centre, is there a UK based one?

hogshead

posted wrote: »

What was the original symptom?

Yesterday was spent on the phone & I can honestly say I don't remember. PC wouldn't start in safe mode. They had me do lots of f function stuff all alien to me!
I am beside myself but another hard lesson learned. I don't know for sure if it is faulty or they tired of assisting me. Scans & restarts all failed halfway through!

posted_2

Put it back in, and see what happens, if it is still spinning, and attempts a boot, you may be able to get the data back yourself

generaloneill

It costs me nothing to retrieve data on a hard drive.

hogshead

Really appreciate the help/advice.
I have school run now so will read any further replies on my return.
They are calling tonight to guide me through the install of new drive. Once this is in can I safetly remove it & try the old one again or once in should I leave it be. If the latter I really need to try the old one again before they call me this evening.