Dell/Tesco PC & new hard drive

hogshead

macman wrote: »

Glad it appears to be fixed but it may still be that your hard drive is faulty and may yet fail at any time, get your backup sorted and then accept their offer of a new hard drive and replace it. You may be less lucky next time.

OH was considering this also. Our concern is that they want the old 'faulty' drive back but I guess all our data despite erasing it can still be retrieved should someone wish to source it.

macman

I think 2 copies is better than no copies. Dell surely only ask for the old ones back to stop people scamming them for a free extra drive.
No doubt they either destroy the old ones or wipe them securely, it's not like you're dealing with a small outfit-they have a reputation to maintain.

hogshead

macman wrote: »

I think 2 copies is better than no copies. Dell surely only ask for the old ones back to stop people scamming them for a free extra drive.
No doubt they either destroy the old ones or wipe them securely, it's not like you're dealing with a small outfit-they have a reputation to maintain.

From the appauling call centre assistance & the fact that info from this site & OH having a go sorted it, all be it temporarily, you'd beg to differ.

I do plan to return either one. I shall worry about that once I have saved the data.

macman

It's your choice, but if the original drive then fails you will lose the OS too unless you have an operating system disk. If it was drive failure, this doesn't go away; it may fail totally first time out, or you may get a warning, as you have. But sooner or later it will fail totally-in my experience this is usually one month outside the warranty period.
You could pay Dell to keep the original disk if the data security is what concerns you.

old_codger1

anewhope wrote: »

If it was making any unusual noises and it's become unresponsive then it's usually indicative of a head crash, which is the worst thing for the integrity of the data held on the drive.

Yeah, hardware error by the sounds of it. If it can be made to work I'd backup the stuff I want from it and swap it out. It might be the power good signal so it might be the PSU, actually.

Pssst

hogshead wrote: »

I am HAPPY to report that we followed advice on here & popped it back it.
Prompt was to run a system restore which seems quite simple & was not suggested on the help line.
It offered several prompts along the way & that it may resart throughout the operation but everything now appears to be fine.

All data, photos etc are present so I shall await their call & return the new driver they sent out.

I am so thankful for all the replies & offers of help. I am grateful that you took the time to offer any solution at all as some of the posts do often get answered elsewhere ( I searched but was desperate also )

I know it was also suggested to do nothing so it was a hard call which for us paid off.

Tomorrow I shall be buying an external hard drive & a million CD's & saving in multiples. Off to search for a good deal on the Ext HD...any suggestions.

Thanks again to you all, really without being mushy I am most grateful.

There you go. I just knew it wasnt broke.