If I'm reading your SMART data right (it's a little confusing but I pasted it into a spreadsheet) then you have at least three errors that would indicate a mechanical failure. But I'm not sure if I'm reading them right. :)
If you have another PC, then to confirm you should get either Ultimate Boot CD or Hiren's Boot CD, put it on a USB key or CD and boot into that. It has a number of tools that will tell you the status of your hard drive without having to install anything.
Alternatively, if your hard drive is dead and those text menus are scary it's also possible to get a Ubuntu live CD (again, on CD or USB), and boot into that. It has a disk management tool called Disks that tells you in a graphical environment the status of your hard drive. Unlike many other distros with live CDs, the Ubuntu live CD will automatically recognise all your hard drives and devices so it should be easy to check the SMART status. :)
I took the laptop back to Dick Smiths to have a look and they said that the Windows 8.1 refresh has created partitions in my C drive. I haven't a clue what they are talking about but I have the disk management window open with the information he showed me.
I can't think how to upload it here because I don't have enough space on the hard drive to save a file so I can upload it and I no longer have Office or similar apps to paste the image into as they didn't come with Windows and again, I can't install them because no space.
They recommended taking it to a tech shop but I'm going to be pretty annoyed if I have to pay a lot to repair this. Is there anything else I can do?
First up, Dick Smith are full of it. They barely know anything about the products they sell. I wouldn't trust them with a lightbulb, as a rule. There might be exceptions (can think of a couple of guys down in Dunedin I'd trust to know), but lots of the staff are total goofs (can think of at least two complete goofs in Dunedin).
If your drive has been partitioned, it'll show up as two separate blocks in disk management. Like so:
Windows refresh doesn't partition the drives. Windows does install a small partition at the start of the drive for its boot process. But it's much smaller than 1gb. Similarly, the recovery partition is much larger than 1gb.
Unless you specifically told it so, Windows refresh would not partition the drive. It may be that the partition tables (the data that tells the drive how to separate partitions and in what format to do so) have become corrupted and it's now reporting incorrect information. However, please note what I said up there. Although I can't read the data clearly and be certain, there may be indicators that the hard drive is failing.
If you can - if you have another computer - get Hiren's boot CD and put it on a bootable USB. Follow the instructions on the website. Boot into that on the Envy and then check the hard disk using the diagnostic tools in Hiren's. Maybe take a photo of the result. :) But the results in Hiren's should clearly state whether or not the drive is failing. Hiren's also has partition tools to help you figure out how the drive is partitioned, and it runs in DOS straight from the USB, so there shouldn't be any errors to do with space. HD partition viewers should show two partitions: a hidden system recovery partition of around 13GB, and the main operating system partition.
If you don't have another computer, then do a fresh install of Windows - after you have attempted to get off your data. Valuable data should be autosynced to the cloud anyway. :) I say fresh install because at this point you're boned anyway.
You should create recovery disks, if you can, using the HP software in Windows, and boot with those and do the fresh install. If not, you can boot from system recovery partition.
When you do the completely fresh install, it will give you the option to partition the disk. At this point you will know how much space is on your hard drive and the partition status because the install is happening outside the operating system. You will have the option to completely erase the HD and start again. Do this. If you haven't run the tests on Hiren's at this point, and you get errors when you try and partition or when you try and install, I really would recommend running those SMART tests through Hiren's.
Also, the guides on HP site for installs, refreshes and how to boot into recovery or from USB are really good. I would use them.
If you have a failing HD then you should have a claim under the CGA. Most hard drives have a minimum of two year's manufacturer warranty, so if that's the component that's going it should be free to be replaced.
Thanks for the reply, and yes I would agree with you about DSE staff, although I don't have much choice than to speak to them about it.
Even though I'm told Windows 8 doesn't need a boot disk I get the error message 'Please insert bootable media'. Then when I try to create a recovery drive I get past the first page and am then told 'We can't create a recovery drive on this PC, some required files are missing'.
Resetting is exactly what I want to do. All my files are backed up on an ext HDD and I really want to see if I can get the laptop back to factory settings, maybe whatever happened to the HD will be gone.
Your initial problem sounded like a CPU overheating to me. You might not feel the heat from the outside, but those things get hot when they're busy. That would be for a PC technician to fix.
Your hard drive could be failing, or could just need a refresh. What I would do is buy an SSD (note the height differs, make it fits) such as the Samsung 840/850 ideally pro model and reinstall windows. That might take some fiddling if you don't have an install disk. You could try creating rescue media from your current install before you do a drive swap.
Alternately just reinstall windows to your current drive, but you'll lose all your data. I hope you have good backups.
Timmay. Ckc is the person helping me. Trying to restore to see if it may fix the problem but having no luck with it right now. im in taupo and will definitely be returning it to dse once I can determine it's a mechanical fault.
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