Computer busted and I know fuk all

[whitesteel]

My computer will not boot up any more, I was surfing the net and it started making this horrible grinding noise, so I switched it off and when I turned it back on it wouldn't boot. I tried belting the pc tower and although the pitch and tone of the grinding noise changed the problem remained. I think I will need either a new hard drive, processor or both but I am not sure what. I looked inside and the noise is definitely coming from the hard drive as I disconnected it and the noise stopped. I know very little about computers so if anyone can help but needs further information I will try my best to supply it. If anyone could tell me if it is the processor or the hard drive that would be a start as I don't want to shell out for stuff I don't need. Also if anyone can tell me where the cheapest place to buy this kind of stuff is or has either one spare that they want to sell, it would be a great help.

[Violator]

Going by that info your hard drive is dead my friend. Was it an IBM by any chance.

[rdaley]

Does it do the Power On Self Test then say something like Non system disk error cannot boot.

If so it is probably the hard drive. To make sure beg, steal or borrow another hard drive and plug it in and see what happens if it boots it probably the hard drive.

Its unlikely that its the processor or anything else solid state as they don't make a noise.

There are loads of tutorials on PC maintance online so would bother buying a book just search for "Replacing Hard Drives" and plenty will pop up.

Good luck

[rdaley]

Always good fun taking the thing apart and playing frisby with the disks once you know its shagged

[whitesteel]

Originally posted by rdaley
Does it do the Power On Self Test then say something like Non system disk error cannot boot.

Good luck

Yeah mate that is exactly what it does, so it sounds like it is the hard drive which, has saved me some hassle at least so cheers. @ violator I am not sure what the hard drive is (and I am not at my place to check) but I don't think it is an IBM. I reckon I can swap the hard drive myself if that is what it is as I have already had a look at it and if it is just a case of swapping the connections and so forth it shouldn't be too bad (I am a mug when it comes to computers but not totally useless). Anyone with any experience of buying pc parts know of a decent, reliable and most importantly cheap place to get a good hard drive from, or have a spare one knocking around that they have no use for and want off there hands, at a reasonable price.