Computer hard drive failure - what rights do I have?

msr

My PC was purchased October 2012 and the last few months it has taken a while to boot up, now I have the message of Imminent Hard Drive Failure.

OK. so it's out of warranty, but surely I should expect a computer to last much longer than this, or am I wrong?

It is the second HP I have bought which has had hard drive problem.

Any suggestions please?

OlliesDad

msr wrote: »

My PC was purchased October 2012 and the last few months it has taken a while to boot up, now I have the message of Imminent Hard Drive Failure.

OK. so it's out of warranty, but surely I should expect a computer to last much longer than this, or am I wrong?

It is the second HP I have bought which has had hard drive problem.

Any suggestions please?

Due to the length of time that you have had the PC you would have to prove that the issue is due to an inherent fault.

Due to the potential urgency, and as new hard drives can be picked up quite cheaply, it may be better if you just replace it (head over to the techie board for advice if needed).

JJ_Egan

Hard drives usually fail immediately and two working years then fail is a bit unusual .Their may be a longer manufacturers warranty on the drive so its worth an initial ask of your vendor . Though any extra warranty may not apply to OEM products .
The actual failure can be mechanical electrical or user .

vuvuzela

msr wrote: »

My PC was purchased October 2012 and the last few months it has taken a while to boot up, now I have the message of Imminent Hard Drive Failure.

OK. so it's out of warranty, but surely I should expect a computer to last much longer than this, or am I wrong?

It is the second HP I have bought which has had hard drive problem.

Any suggestions please?

Back up your data now !
(And then next time don't buy an HP...)

Nilrem

If you're receiving a HDD failure warning from windows get a replacement drive and copy stuff over to it NOW
Don't dither, don't wait around, do it straight away, as by the time windows starts to report that a drive is failing it's usually well along the way and could be dead at next boot, or even fail whilst you're just browsing the internet.
If possible I'd suggest getting an external USB drive to back up your data onto, and a new internal drive to reinstall onto.

I had to replace one of my drives a couple of weeks back because I had a couple of odd crashes and noticed that the event viewer showed a lot of errors on the drive, I ordered the drive as soon as I saw the string of messages in the log, and in the 18 hours between ordering the drive and it arriving Windows was starting to give me the "your drive is screwed" message.

visidigi

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Hard drives usually fail immediately and two working years then fail is a bit unusual .Their may be a longer manufacturers warranty on the drive so its worth an initial ask of your vendor . Though any extra warranty may not apply to OEM products .
The actual failure can be mechanical electrical or user .

I've had the opposite experience of your drives usually fail DOA and not after use.

HDD's on OEM status usually have a short warranty, retail is usually better

vuvuzela wrote: »

Back up your data now !
(And then next time don't buy an HP...)

HP isn't the drive manufacturer - just a SI company using other parts.

Agreed on the back up though, do it quickly.

ossie

Time to invest in an SSD. You will not regret it!

mattyprice4004

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Hard drives usually fail immediately and two working years then fail is a bit unusual .Their may be a longer manufacturers warranty on the drive so its worth an initial ask of your vendor . Though any extra warranty may not apply to OEM products .
The actual failure can be mechanical electrical or user .

I used to own a small computer business, and saw far more older drives failing than new.

CoolHotCold

While lots of advice given for the technical side, little in terms of help for the consumer side.

OP, any and all consumer rights you have are with the retailer, if you purchased it direct from HP your rights are with them, otherwise they are a manufacturer with no legal obligation, certainly try them first to see if they offer a foc repair, but don't hold your breath.

In terms of contacting the retailer, try that and see how you go, if they refuse (as they are entitled to) you will have to get a independent report stating the fault is inherent as the device is over 6 months old, if you manage to get this report then the retailer can repair, replace, refund (may be partial due to use).


As a sidenote, it's unlikely to get a report, at least not from any decent repair establishment as HDD's are mechanical parts and subject to knocks, bumps, vibrations and so usually are user damaged (even though the laptop may look mint) so unless the HDD is one of the more known ones to fail, I would not hold out much hope for a FOC repair/consumer rights repair.

vuvuzela

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

I used to own a small computer business, and saw far more older drives failing than new.

I think the poster was trying to say that generally hard drives either fail within hours of being first used or after many years. After only a couple of years is slightly unusual in my experience (IT tech for the last 20 years).

Cycrow

vuvuzela wrote: »

I think the poster was trying to say that generally hard drives either fail within hours of being first used or after many years. After only a couple of years is slightly unusual in my experience (IT tech for the last 20 years).

This was pretty common for deathstars

but in general, hard drives that fail earlier usually do so due to damage, the most common one being Heat.
PC's that havn't been cleaned out for years are much more likely to fail, especially as the days get hotter