Failing laptop hard drive

[woodson1975]

I'm trying to fix an Acer Aspire 2012WLMI laptop - upon bootup it just beeps loudly and the screen stays black. Beep pattern is 2 short, 1 long (repeated). I checked the RAM is installed correctly. Now I've taken out the HDD and am backing up the files. Did a check with Crystal Disk and the health status reads "Caution" and it has a "Current Pending Sector Count" of 72. Does this mean a new HDD? It's not my machine, so I can't reformat or "zero fill", as I've read about. Do I just have to tell the owner they will have to stump up for a new HDD and a copy of Windows? Or would cloning the drive be an option? Or could it be dead RAM?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[mace200200]

It's not the hard drive. A bad hard drive will not keep a PC from posting and getting into BIOs. I'm really bad with post codes, so disregarding the part about the beeps, I"d say that it's probably bad RAM. Although it's weird RAM and Hard Drive would fail at the same time.

You don't need a new windows license, if you don't have a copy on disc download the right one (Home Premium, Pro, or Ultimate) boot it up, then enter the windows number that should be stuck to the bottom of the machine.