hard disk failure in sony vio laptop VPCSB38GA

Sunset just wipe the drive mate you will need a working machine that you can hook this drive to and use DISKPART clean all or wipe disk with Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition. click on drive and click wipe drive then Apply at the top.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

both will take quite a while to clean the drive and then you will need to format it for use.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

Hi sunset72,

Hold on. No need to take your drive out. (IClol may please excuse. LOL. )

I see that you have run WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS version 5.19.(the current version is 5.20 which you can get from the WD site WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD Black but that is not important now)

What is important now is that from the diagnostic tool, you can select the option to "WRITE ZEROS TO DRIVE" and it will wipe the drive clean.

Next you can format your drive with the bootable CD version of Partition Wizard Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online

(You may either burn the bootable ISO to a CD or create a bootable pen drive with that ISO using Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way . )

EDIT:When you create a bootable PW pen drive, after you have selected "ISO Image" in the dropdown arrow, navigate to the location of pwhe8.iso and select it, Rufus will prompt to download a new vesamenu.32. Say "Yes" and it will download it to the same folder where Rufus is placed. Once the download is completed, click on "Start" and the Bootable pendrive will be ready in minutes. Close Rufus. Boot from the pendrive and run Partition Wizard.



You may create three primary partitions and the rest extended partition with as many logical drives as you may want and then clean install Windows 7 on one primary partition. (That is how I do or did. Others may have different ideas.)

Have you noted the COA key on the laptop? You will require it to activate the installed Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. ( applies if you do a clean install as opposed to a reinstall with HP recovery discs for that system)

EDIT: I am just curious to know how you ran Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS. Was it from a bootable DOS CD or bootable DOS pen drive? I ask this question because people usually expect an ISO. They turn away when they find it is not an ISO because they do not know how to handle it and use it. You seem to have done a good job.

Sorry Jumnaji I didn't know that about the WD stuff so have learnt some thing new

We all continue to learn bits and pieces here and there and there is nothing to be ashamed of or feel sorry for, it.

Most HDD manufactrurer's diagnostic/repair tools provide for zeroing the drives - certain of Seagate SeaTools and WD DLDg