A friend has an old Compaq Presario 3015 whose hard disk started failing
until the laptop could not boot (it would ask to run chkdsk every time,
then just cycled through coming back to the safe mode menu selection).

I tried re-formatting (not the quick format) and re-installing WinXP, but
the process was extremely slow and the computer would either hang or
power off during the process. So I replaced the HDD with a brand new
identical one (80 GB EIDE) and re-installed WinXP. The installation went
without a hitch until the laptop rebooted, after which it began randomly
powering off again.

I used the original recovery CDs to restore the laptop to its original
installation, but after it's done I get "hard disk boot sector invalid"
and Windows won't boot up. Strange thing is, I tried recovering on the
old drive, and the exact same thing happens. So it appears the old drive
may not have been to blame after all.

Is this the IDE interface gone bad?

The computer's BIOS won't allow booting from USB (and no BIOS update is
available), or I would have devised a way to run from an external USB
drive. His only solution seems to be an expensive repair on a 5-year-old
laptop, or an even more expensive new computer.

Any ideas?


jaybee