Failed HDD in Fujitsu Amilo Li 2727 (EDITED)
My baby sister (well OK she's 15, but I'm getting old lol) was bought a Fujitsu Amilo Li 2727 laptop at the end of last year. It has a Celeron M 1.7 (or 1.8?) Ghz CPU, 1GB DDR2 RAM and runs Vista Basic x86.
She's been using it for coursework, email, web, and basic downloading etc. She rang me the other day saying it was "acting funny" and would I have a look at it. I booted it up, did the basics (malware scan, checked processes etc) and all was clean. Running Windows Update, however, threw a "files are corrupt" error after download, and on reboot the machine entered a perpetual BSOD/reboot cycle.
After backing up her coursework from a Linux live CD I formatted the hdd. Since she hadn't created the Fujitsu recovery DVD (which entails entering the boot menu and launching a non-Windows GUI, which is beyond her) I installed Win7 beta 7057 and it was flying along for about 30 minutes. Once I'd tweaked it a little, I ran Windows Update again and the same corrupted files error occurred. I ran chkdsk /r and two DAYS later (yes it really took that long for a poxy 120GB hdd) chkdsk had repaired what seemed like hundreds of errors on the drive.
I rebooted, to be greeted by a "SMART predicts imminent hdd failure, please back up immediately and change the hdd" message.
My dad has apparently lost his receipt for it, and they paid cash (I know, I know...).
Presuming the store / Fujitsu don't want anything to do with it even if I ring and ask nicely (HP have done warranty repairs for me without a receipt before now), I'm presuming it's fairly straightforward to install a new HDD? I've built desktop rigs before now but never opened a lappy.
Am I better replacing her current hdd with a 7,200rpm drive for faster performance or just go for a slightly more expensive 5,400rpm drive? I noticed OcUK sell several of both types but 5,400 seems more popular even in more expensive drives.
Are they easy to install on a laptop? I may as well upgrade her to 2GB RAM while I'm there, Vista is woeful on 1GB. With 2GB and Win7 beta she should be much happier in the long run.
Your thoughts, please?
My baby sister (well OK she's 15, but I'm getting old lol) was bought a Fujitsu Amilo Li 2727 laptop at the end of last year. It has a Celeron M 1.7 (or 1.8?) Ghz CPU, 1GB DDR2 RAM and runs Vista Basic x86.
She's been using it for coursework, email, web, and basic downloading etc. She rang me the other day saying it was "acting funny" and would I have a look at it. I booted it up, did the basics (malware scan, checked processes etc) and all was clean. Running Windows Update, however, threw a "files are corrupt" error after download, and on reboot the machine entered a perpetual BSOD/reboot cycle.
After backing up her coursework from a Linux live CD I formatted the hdd. Since she hadn't created the Fujitsu recovery DVD (which entails entering the boot menu and launching a non-Windows GUI, which is beyond her) I installed Win7 beta 7057 and it was flying along for about 30 minutes. Once I'd tweaked it a little, I ran Windows Update again and the same corrupted files error occurred. I ran chkdsk /r and two DAYS later (yes it really took that long for a poxy 120GB hdd) chkdsk had repaired what seemed like hundreds of errors on the drive.
I rebooted, to be greeted by a "SMART predicts imminent hdd failure, please back up immediately and change the hdd" message.
My dad has apparently lost his receipt for it, and they paid cash (I know, I know...).Presuming the store / Fujitsu don't want anything to do with it even if I ring and ask nicely (HP have done warranty repairs for me without a receipt before now), I'm presuming it's fairly straightforward to install a new HDD? I've built desktop rigs before now but never opened a lappy.
Am I better replacing her current hdd with a 7,200rpm drive for faster performance or just go for a slightly more expensive 5,400rpm drive? I noticed OcUK sell several of both types but 5,400 seems more popular even in more expensive drives.
Are they easy to install on a laptop? I may as well upgrade her to 2GB RAM while I'm there, Vista is woeful on 1GB. With 2GB and Win7 beta she should be much happier in the long run.
Your thoughts, please?
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