Windows won't boot. Looking for opinion if HDD at fault?

[Nathan_127]

Hi there,

My computer got dropped a few years back. It had this error "media test failure: check cable". The repair guy said the SATA controller was broken (the thing which connects up the harddrive).
After revisiting this case 2 years after, I discovered that the HDD appeared in the Computer's Setup Utility (f2 on boot) meaning the SATA Controller was indeed fine.

The repair guy never stopped to think that maybe the hard disk drive got damaged and corrupted and that's why it couldn't boot. -- Back to now though: I wasn't able to reinstall windows via USB prior to clearing the harddrive in command prompt (thanks YouTube). So Windows reinstalled bam. Fixed.

I went to go update the drivers (an hour after logging into windows 10), and before I had a chance to install them I saw right in front of my eyes (thanks to a window I had open): the AMD Graphics driver disappear in front of me. Seconds after a "Hardware has changed. Please reboot" message appeared , which crashed my computer. Since then it's been stuck on boot.

I have since:
1. Restored windows entirely to which everything was fine, then it crashed again minutes after (this time without the 'Hardware has changed' message
2. Ran repair mode
3. Ran a /fix boot
4. Gone into safe mode successfully and uninstall graphic drivers (no idea what I was doing there)
5. Clean installed Windows again, from bootable USB

I have a gut feeling the HDD is at fault. When the computer dropped it clearly wiped Windows off the HDD and corrupted it. When I clearly reset the HDD, and reinstalled windows on it, shortly after it seemed to delete drivers mysteriously -- leading me to believe it's packed up. As well as when I went to do a restore restore (the extreme restore option which wipes everything, which takes several hours) it went for 2 hours, was at 40%, I came back an hour later and it had black screen'd. I guess this is cause the Harddisk Drive had some crash cause I assume it never completed finishing installing windows - but there is no way to tell for sure. Then finally, when I went to reinstall Windows from a bootable USB as my last resort, 3 times, during the initialising phase, it went back to the main menu - as in it was packing up in front of my eyes.

My second hunch is that the drivers, which are 2009 amd drivers, are not compatible with Windows 10 - which I've read online has massive links to the "Hardware changed error". But I lesser agree with this hunch since of the previous 'HDD corrupting/wiping windows on dropping it'

So now I'm looking at getting a new HDD, the CURRENT model is:
Toshiba 5400RPM 6.0Gb/s (MQ01ABD100)
Buffer: 8 MB 
Drive Interface: SATA 
Drive Width: 2.5" 
Product Family: 9.5mm
Rotational Speed: 5400 rpm 
Storage Capacity: 1000 GB 1TB 

I can order the same model in but that would take weeks, I can get this within a day from a store near me:
Seagate BARRACUDA, 1TB 2.5" 7mm Internal Hard Drive - SATA3 - 5400RPM -128MB

So my question is, do you guys agree the HDD is faulty?
Then secondly, what am I looking at when replacing an HDD, are the settings of the two HDD's above interchangeable to each other? Can I just physically swap them, and do all I need to do is clean install of windows on the new one?

Thank you very much for reading this.

 

[Jwpanz]

HDD’s are susceptible to damage from falls which is one of the selling points of SSD’s as they have no mechanical parts. This is often a problem of dropped laptops with HDD’s and can be an issue if a desktop tower is dropped.

The fact that Windows seems corrupted and sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t is an indicator that the HDD can be damaged. If you were to replace it then replace it with a newer model from Seagate or WD. The only thing that matters is that the drive is SATA and make/model and size are not an issue.

You can try cloning your disk with a cloning tool such as Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect. If your drive is too damaged to boot into Windows to do this then you can simply swap out your drive with the new one and load Windows to it from a bootable USB.

If your problem persists after all of this then you are left with wondering what other component is damaged. A drop can damage motherboards, graphics cards, HDD’s, and anything else with sensitive solder points.

In my opinion, your HDD is to blame or, at least, that’s where I would start.

 

[Nathan_127]

HDD’s are susceptible to damage from falls which is one of the selling points of SSD’s as they have no mechanical parts. This is often a problem of dropped laptops with HDD’s and can be an issue if a desktop tower is dropped.

The fact that Windows seems corrupted and sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t is an indicator that the HDD can be damaged. If you were to replace it then replace it with a newer model from Seagate or WD. The only thing that matters is that the drive is SATA and make/model and size are not an issue.

You can try cloning your disk with a cloning tool such as Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect. If your drive is too damaged to boot into Windows to do this then you can simply swap out your drive with the new one and load Windows to it from a bootable USB.

If your problem persists after all of this then you are left with wondering what other component is damaged. A drop can damage motherboards, graphics cards, HDD’s, and anything else with sensitive solder points.

In my opinion, your HDD is to blame or, at least, that’s where I would start.

Beautiful response. Cheers. I will do exactly that.