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I have bought my lap Inspiron n5010 on October 2010. I encountered windows startup failure Within one month of purchase itself. Dell service center people said it was hd failure and replaced the hd. Same thing happened before the expiry of warranty period of one year and hd was replaced for second time.

The same startup error happened and the hd was replaced for the third time before the expiry of 2 years from the date of purchase. Now, My lap again encounters start up error and I get blue screen only. I guess it is hd failure.

My question - what is the reason for these repeated hd failures. Whenever I asked the service persons I could not get any reliable answers. As it happens again and again there should be some reason.

My system runs in windows 7 64 bit.
No extra software. only OpenOffice and vlc.
My use is limited to little browsing and office apps.
I have McAfee site advisor and Microsoft security essentials.
Mostly I don't travel and I use the lap as if it is a desktop. No moving at all.

Please help me to find the factors responsible for repeated hd failure. I always live under the fear of hd failure and loss of entire data. I do not know any hardware and my lap was serviced only by the Dell service centre India.

Is it worthful to change the hd or is there any inherent defect in my lap. You can imagine my fear of expecting hd failure all the time. So please help me.

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Remove the laptops drive, install it in another system (as a second drive) and test it (e.g. read files from it, check SMART data etc). That will tell you if the drive is broken or not. As to that many failures, I see three possible reasons: 1) Really bad luck. 2) Bad design (unlikely), 3) wrong handling of the laptop while the drive is spinning. (e.g. dropping the laptop). – Hennes Jan 23 at 12:22
I think the comments by Hennes covers it, but unless you're working in a situation not suited for a laptop or running a system which requires very high disc communication (like constantly deleting/saving files) then I have to agree, really bad luck. If it were me, I'd get a new laptop, 3 or 4 hard drives down means something else is wrong! – Dave Rook Jan 23 at 12:41
This question is likely to be closed. Mainly because "Dell screwed up" isn't a proper answer. Sounds like a lemon to me. – Tanner Jan 23 at 15:07

closed as not constructive by techie007, ChrisF, Dave M, Tanner, Diago Jan 23 at 15:41

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

2 Answers

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How do you know the faulty HDD was actually replaced. Did you check if the serial number of the HDD changed between repairs.

Perhaps they only reinstalled the OS on a faulty HDD and gave the laptop back to you.

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I agree with previous commenters (Hennes and Ali). But are you sure the hard drive has failed? If you don't know how to pull a hard drive and test it, either externally or in another laptop, then at least run Dell diagnostics to see whether it confirms a lost or failing drive. Most Dell PCs ship with a diagnostics partition (hit F12 as you boot) that will give you access to the hard drive diagnostics. This step should confirm either hard disk errors (in the case of a failing drive) or not find a hard drive (if the internal components like power or the drive seek mechanism have failed).

I ask this because I personally had several Dell Latitudes that would blue screen periodically due to a glitch with hibernation and closing the lid. Removing and replacing the battery would fix the issue for me each time this occurred, but I found this fix on my own. In each case, Dell tech support indicated that it was a failed drive.

Trust, but verify.

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