PC suddenly crashed - can't find hard drive

First of all, this is regarding an old 1720 Dell laptop running Windows 7 32 bit. I left my PC running (working perfectly) while in class, and came home to an error message reading something like "the HDD can't be found". Okay, I reboot the computer, it goes past the setup screen, then I get a blank screen, until the computer automatically reboots after a few minutes.

I tried booting from the Windows install disk, but it freezes while loading every time. I burned a "recovery disk" - same story. I tried putting the HDD in the other HDD bay, and that doesn't work (error - HDD can't be found). I tried putting the HDD in an external hard drive enclosure, and that doesn't work. It is, however, recognized when I connect the external enclosure to a different computer. The problem is that I don't have access to the files.

The HDD occasionally makes a clicking sound, and I'm not sure if that's normal. However, if the HDD is toast, the recovery and install disks should still boot, and they're not. Also, the HDD shows up when connected to another PC through the external HDD enclosure, so it seems like it isn't totally dead.

Do you have any ideas how to fix this? I don't really care if I have to do a reinstall, but I need to recover some of the files first, and right now I don't have access to them through the external enclosure...

PS: I've made no recent software or hardware changes. The HDD is a 320GB SATA

Yea, I'm leaning that direction too, but it's still discovered by BIOS, and it doesn't explain why the recovery and install disks won't boot...

You could try run a HDD test (SeaTools) and see if the HDD is faulty or not
| Seagate

Select SeaTools for DOS and burn into a CD/DVD

Dean

My newly built basic system crashed after just a few weeks. I got black screen with insert system disk. When I do it starts going through Win7 setup. If I try to repair or restore it tells me that there are no points to restore and it also can't repair. So, I tried to re-install Win7. Gets to the point where it asks where I want to store Win 7. But there are no hard drives available. Obviously not recognizing the hard drive I have in. I go to the BIOS and can see it, but Win 7 cannot so it won't install. I really don't want to reformat the hard drive if possible. Any help is much appreciated.

Edog

I apologize for not putting system info. in my thread. I don't think I have SMART enabled in the BIOS.The computer with the problem is actually one I threw together for my brother-in-law. The HD was a 1.5TB Western Digital Caviar Green, which I bought from NewEgg. Also I did some more checking last night in the BIOS. It does show up in the BIOS, but I look at the storage space and it said 0. So, I simply replaced the HD with another one I had laying around. Re-loaded Win7 and all is good now.

Bottom line is I think the HD failed really, really early. Is there a way to test HD after you remove them?

Great, thanks!