A lady arrived at our house the other day with a Toshiba laptop that had been dropped very heavily, so heavily that a large chunk had been smashed off the corner.  She had asked a local computer repair shop to look at it but had balked at the idea of being charged 80 euros just to have it looked!

It now would not work at all and after much persuasion I managed to get to the diagnostic screen and eventually  it became evident that the hard drive had been damaged fatally.

The hard drive is a delicate part of your machine and looks a little like an old record disc with an arm looking a bit like a tonearm across the disc.  The disc revolves at thousands of revs and is easily damaged which is why if you ever look at one in situ it will effectively have what looks like a cage surrounding it to protect it..

This particular laptop was quite new and had a 250 gigabyte hard drive, quite meaty for a laptop, and to replace it would be a fairly simple job although it will need other work done to it other than just fitting.  In this case the guarantee is no use so an insurance claim is the way to go.

So the moral is treat your laptop with respect and take care handling it, this was an extreme case but I have seen hard drives damaged in far gentler accidents.  Do not open the laptop especially if under warranty as this will null and void the guarantee and as always if you have a problem getting your laptop or desktop to start, consult a qualified engineer or if under guarantee the manufacturer or shop it was bought from.

    Andrew Roberts

    With 30 years experience of using and repairing computers, I can help solve your problems and advise on upgrades and internet related programs.

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