Hi, i have a question about my laptop's HDD.

When i boot my laptop it says shows me nvidia boot agent and says "media test failed, check cables" before it loads windows;however i can access my bios. sometimes it just says " A disk read error

occurred.Press Ctrl+ALT+DEl to restart"

If i replace my other computers hdd with the one in laptop i get the same error so im guessing its my hdd failures not mb or anything else. Is there any way i can fix it or at least transfer my files from

the broken hdd? and if i get a new hdd for my laptop will it work?

any help is grateful

Whats the os, if its vista or 7 theres built in program that will check for errors and avoid writeing to them in future, sounds like it is hard drive, if you can connect it to your desktop im assuming its a sata drive if it was me i would get a new drive the same size (exactly same size to the nearest byte) or bigger and try coping the entire image including os with hd clone.

you can transfer files to desktop computer.

thank you for reply, os on the laptop is vista, on the desktop its win7. both hdds are sata. i have considered clonning before but i have no idea how it works and what i need to do it. do i need any special kind of cable or somethin esle?

HDClone Free Edition - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

very easy to use, download program burn to cd, set computer to boot from cd drive, connect laptop drive and new drive to desktop and reboot follow instruction, takes awhile to complete and if your os is corrupted the copy will be also but its what i would try.

Turn off the laptop and eject the battery. To avoid risking injury, you must shut down the laptop and remove the battery before attempting to install a new hard drive. This will prevent electricity from traveling through the laptop while you are working on it. Turn the laptop off through the Windows operating system and close the lid. Place the laptop upside down on a flat, level surface so that you can easily access the bottom of the laptop. Remove the battery by sliding the battery lock---found directly above the battery compartment---to the "unlocked" position. Open the battery bay and lift or slide the battery out. Wait until your Acer laptop has cooled off before proceeding to the next step. Locate the hard drive compartment and remove the cover. Most Acer laptops store the hard drive in its own compartment near the battery for easy removal and installation. Check the user guide that came with your laptop to be sure which compartment contains the hard drive on your specific Acer model. Use a laptop screwdriver to remove the two screws that secure the cover to the laptop, then lift the cover to remove it. Replace the old hard drive with the new one. When you open the hard drive compartment, you will see a removable metal cage. This is not the hard drive, but a protective compartment in which the hard drive is mounted. Carefully lift and pull the right edge of the hard drive cage to disconnect it from the motherboard. Use a laptop screwdriver to remove the screws securing the hard drive to the cage. After you remove the old hard drive, insert the new one into the metal cage, and then replace the screws. Slide the hard drive cage back into the compartment to connect it to the motherboard. Replace the hard drive compartment cover and secure its two screws to complete installation of the hard drive. Install Windows, software, and Acer drivers and utilities. Insert the battery back into its compartment and reconnect the laptop's power cord, cables and peripherals. To use the new hard drive, insert the recovery disk that came with your Acer laptop to begin the installation of Windows and the drivers and utilities you need to operate the laptop. This includes drivers and utilities for the modem, sound card, touchpad and video card. Install any programs and transfer any files you want stored on the new hard drive.

To recover your files you can use one of the many options
1) Buy a usb hdd caddy ... from ebuyer.com for example, its about £7 and if the hdd is ok you can put itinside and connect it to a differenc pc to recover data
2) go to ubuntu.com and download the live cd iso, burn it onto a cd using nero or any other program and and boot ur laptop with that cd..recover the files onto a usb drive

hope it helps



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