Hard Drive Failure or Motherboard Failure

[joyceg]

Dell Latitude E5500
Laptop Nerd thought my HDD was failing, but I wondered if it could be the motherboard or both, since it wouldn't boot a live/install Ubuntu CD in my disk drive. Sent the below info but haven't heard an answer so maybe since this is not a private msg someone can give me an answer.

From: joyceg

Sent on: February 22, 2016 12:57 PM

Thanks for your quick reply. I checked out your links & think you're right about a failing hard drive. Before I asked for your help I also tried to boot this computer using a live/install Ubuntu cd using cd/rw drive and It would not boot in the cd/rw drive. Prior to this I checked the bios and it was set to default settings, as it should be. (I think?) I am wondering if I should have changed the bios to boot to the cd/rw first and then if it still won't boot, is it still the hard drive failing and/or could it be the motherboard failing, or both? Is there a way for me to check and see if it's both that are failing or which one is failing if it's not both? Can you help with this? I'd hate to replace both if both are not toast.

 

[tman1]

Remove the hard drive and test with the live CD. If it works, then the HD was the cause. If it doesn't work, then there's probably nothing wrong with the hard drive.