My daughters lap to purchased refurbish in 2015 for approximately $250 is a HP pavilion 15 inch model. It has run great and been perfect for her needs.

It will not boot up and when I ran a diagnostic test on it per hp support page I got a hard drive error. Hp says the hard drive needs to be replaced.

There is no data to be recovered this is a straight up swap out. I assume not all hard drives will fit so I have to find a specific model for this lap top. It's a 1 TB hard drive but she could get by with less.

Also will the hard drive have an operating system installed on it or will I need to add that.

For what I have invested and what I've seen hard drives price at I'm not real interested spending a whole lot of money.

So SF computer guys can this be done cheaply. Should I pull the old hard drive and get model information from the old one to purchase a new one?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GA Gator,

you can start here for the hard drive. https://www.newegg.com/Laptop-...ry/ID-380?Tid=167524

What operating system did the computer have? If it was win 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 and there is a license sticker, you can download installation disk for win 10 and still use the license.

Good luck
Bill

Samsung 860 EVO SSD drive, 250gb for $51:

https://www.newegg.com/Product...20-147-676-_-Product

EMCEPPR54 should be able to get you an additional $5 off.

If you need a Windows 7 COA, let me know.

for $250.00 you got your money's worth get another 2018 refurb and save yourself the aggravation
https://outlet.us.dell.com/Arb...dzwUovPxLVl%2bFIg%3d

quote:

Originally posted by side_shot:
for $250.00 you got your money's worth get another 2018 refurb and save yourself the aggravation
https://outlet.us.dell.com/Arb...dzwUovPxLVl%2bFIg%3d

^^^THIS^^^

Its gonna be a 2.5 inch drive, the main thing to check on that vintage is if it's IDE or SATA.

Thanks guys, it's Windows 10. She paid for this with her own money I'd rather change it out than buy her a new one. Its one thing for me to fix it it's another for me to just buy her a new one.

Im going to pul it out then go from there.

It will be easier and better to just buy a new refurb rather than try to sink money into the old one.

My 12 and 13 year old buy their own electronics, lap tops, phone, Xbox, etc. I'll fix them but not replace them. Its worth the $60 and my time. I agree it's likely better to just replace it but she doesn't have $250.

The rest of the electronics in the laptop are probably solid. It's not uncommon for the hard drive to go bad in laptops. Replace the drive (if it's a SATA interface) with the Samsung SSD as suggested by lkdr1989. It's a great deal and 250 GB is more than enough for the OS and lots of data (pictures/videos). And, you will be amazed at the speed of the computer with an SSD drive. It will give new life to it.

quote:

Originally posted by GA Gator:
My 12 and 13 year old buy their own electronics, lap tops, phone, Xbox, etc. I'll fix them but not replace them. Its worth the $60 and my time. I agree it's likely better to just replace it but she doesn't have $250.

omg just front her the money then you can make her work it off

Yep, that's a SATA III (6 Gbps) hard drive. Replace it with the Samsung 250 GB SSD and install Windows 10 and the system will be flying. Even though it's a 1 TB drive, that's usually way more than is needed for a laptop computer. 250 GB should be adequate, but if you feel you need more, get the 500 GB Samsung SSD. It's on sale as well for about $87.00.

You can grab any 2.5" SSD on Newegg or Amazon, install it, re-install Windows and have the issue resolved. I'd recommend a 240/250GB drive given the current pricing on that size SSD. A nice side benefit will be that her laptop will feel much faster with that SSD installed.

Going from 1tb to 250GB etc. on an ssd is a risk if you don't have a clue what's being used.
For sure the SSD will be a performance winner, but overall without anything else to go on I'd just put back what was there if all was ok. They are really cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Going from 1tb to 250GB etc. on an ssd is a risk if you don't have a clue what's being used.

Well, the hard drive is toast, so we don't know exactly what was on it. However, I have a 250 GB SSD in my HP laptop with Windows 10 installed, along with a LOT of other programs and many GBs of downloads, videos, and photos and still have about 175 GB free.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Going from 1tb to 250GB etc. on an ssd is a risk if you don't have a clue what's being used.
For sure the SSD will be a performance winner, but overall without anything else to go on I'd just put back what was there if all was ok. They are really cheap.

Read GA GATOR's original post. Doesn't sound as though his daughter had much of anything on that drive. I gave my son a refurb'd Dell Latitude laptop I installed a new 250gb Samsung SSD in when he headed to college four years ago, and he's still hasn't maxed out the drive. The performance benefits of an SSD far out weigh the small bump in its price.

quote:

Originally posted by side_shot:
for $250.00 you got your money's worth get another 2018 refurb and save yourself the aggravation
https://outlet.us.dell.com/Arb...dzwUovPxLVl%2bFIg%3d

THIS, The battery and fan are probably shot as well as the hard drive. Just get another cheap lap top.

quote:

Originally posted by still_bill:
you can start here for the hard drive. https://www.newegg.com/Laptop-...ry/ID-380?Tid=167524

What operating system did the computer have? If it was win 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 and there is a license sticker, you can download installation disk for win 10 and still use the license.

Good luck
Bill

I upgraded a Win7 laptop to Win10 during the free upgrade period. The hard drive has since crashed, and a Microsoft rep said I would need to purchase a Win10 license to reinstall that OS. So are you saying I can just key in the Win7 code on a new Win10 installation and it will authorize?

$6o for a new 250gb SSD and a fresh install of Windows 10 gets my vote. Plenty of life left.