Has My Amilo A1640 Laptop Hard Drive Died?

**mashman** · #1 6th Nov 2009, 11:10

First a little info:
A few days ago i were using my Fujitsu siemens amilo a1640, old i know. and whilst sorting some things in my music library it crashed and wouldnt budge.
I switched it off and the next day it gives me the "windows didnt start successfully" screen, i can't get it to boot up no matter which option i choose, though when i choose safe mode it shows the windows xp loading logo then flashes a quick blue screen with a small amount of writing but i dont get the chance to read it then it goes black until i switch it off.

This laptop has already killed one hard drive before, but i have a spare which is exactly the same and works in another laptop.

Here is the question :
Is my hard drive dead? if so how do i replace the broken one with the other laptops drive?

**Razer** · #2 6th Nov 2009, 11:26

Take it to a PC shop if you don't know what you're doing. It could make things worse.

You usually open the access panel at the back, pop out the drive, pop in a new one and off you go but I've seen them screwed in the side before..

The hard drive seems fine if windows gets to booting the falls over. Have you got an XP CD you can borrow for a while and run the repair utility? Don't worry if that sounds scary, we'll be here to guide you through!

**mashman** · #3 6th Nov 2009, 11:54

ah, i moved houses and i dont believe i have many of the CD's that came with it as it were second hand, i do have the "Fujitsu Siemens Product Recovery CD-ROM Windows XP Home SP1" CD.

Though i tried inserting it on boot, and pressing F12 to get it to boot from CD, but i get the same results.

i would like to say i'm experienced enough not to be able to completely destroy the laptop

**Razer** · #4 6th Nov 2009, 12:07

You need an actual Windows XP CD, not a recovery CD unfortunately. Feel free to download one, as long as you use your own XP key, it's fine.

No worries if your hard drive is bust or not, it's fine. No breakety today :P