Possible hard drive failure?

[iWaffle]

Hi, I'll be honest and say that I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to the hardware side of computers but I'll try my best and explain my problem. Any help would be appreciated.

I received my PC in early January this year and its worked perfectly. The exception being the Wireless card, but I usually just hook it up via ethernet cable anyway. So I was happy to let that slide.

Unfortunately starting last month it would bring up a boot agent, and I never thought to look at the message. I would usually ignore it, restart the computer and hold the key for the boot menu. I would choose "P1" which would be followed by a series of random letters and numbers. I assumed this would be the hard drive partition for my OS. It worked for a while, and then the boot agent appeared a few weeks later. I would reset like before and wait for the boot menu. Now all that would appear would be:

• Generic-SM/xD-Picture 1.02
• Generic-MS/MS-Pro 1.03
• Generic-SD/MMC 1.00
• Generic-Compact Flash 1.01
• P3: ATAPI iHAS124 B

I wrote these down but never acted on this at the time. As I had found another workaround to get the OS to boot. The boot options above are still available now. I assume P3 is a third partition on the Hard drive? so the Hard Drive may not be completely gone?

The way I got the OS to boot was to access the BIOS menu by pressing DEL as the computer started up. I went into advanced settings (probably a stupid move on my part) navigated to boot, changed optional ROM messages to "Force BIOS" and disabled all the boot options accept "Boot Option #1" which I set to "P1" (which I assumed was the OS partition of the hard drive). Now when I start up the PC it shows the ASUS logo, beeps and shows the "EZ mode" of the BIOS menu. The boot section show two options. They both are titled as N/A. More recently I noticed that "PWR_FAN" would be below 600RPM unlike now. Now its jumping between 679 and 685 RPM.

As I've been typing this I've been in the BIOS menu, the advanced section and restored everything to default and then restarted. Upon restarting the Windows 7 OS has booted up. This does happen now and again but it happening less and less. If any explanation or fix to this problem can be given again it would be appreciated.

My PC spec (if needed)
Case COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Fan Controller NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

[Fear]

Just to check with your wireless card problem you have screwed the aerials onto the card also have you tried updating/reinstalling the drivers, it could be possible that it had come loose intransit aswell so you might need to remove the card from the PC and then replace it.

Generic-SM/xD-Picture 1.02 (these top 4 are all the memory card reader)
Generic-MS/MS-Pro 1.03 (memory card)
Generic-SD/MMC 1.00 (memory card)
Generic-Compact Flash 1.01 (memory card)
P3: ATAPI iHAS124 B (this should be your DVD drive)

I would not go changing setting in the BIOS unless you really know what you are doing, your problem might be a possible faulty HDD but it might also be that the cables between the motherboard and the HDD are loose and not fully inserted so might need a little push.

Not sure what experience you have working inside the PC so if you are not sure give PCS a call and they will talk you through it, you might be best giving them a call anyway as i am sure they will help sort out whatever the problem is with your system booting.

[baron75mk2]

Yes call tech support & they will walk you trough how to resolve the issue , i guess that somehow the hdd has slipped out of the boot order.

[iWaffle]

Just to check with your wireless card problem you have screwed the aerials onto the card also have you tried updating/reinstalling the drivers, it could be possible that it had come loose intransit aswell so you might need to remove the card from the PC and then replace it.

Yes, I hadn't actually screwed the aerials onto the card. Feel really stupid for not realizing that, but that problems solved now thank you.

Yes call tech support & they will walk you trough how to resolve the issue , i guess that somehow the hdd has slipped out of the boot order.

So it might be a case of having to open up the machine like Fear said. If the tech people walk me through it I'm sure I can manage it. Thanks to both of you for replying.