Hi all,

I bought my Dell Inspiron for £581 in October 2014.

I had two callouts in the first two months to repair motherboard and wireless connectivity issues.

Today the laptop has failed on restart with blue screen message "Unmountable boot volume". I have run startup diagnostic tests which indicate hard disk failure:

Error code - 2000-0142

Validation - 85842

Looking this up on Dell diagnostic services returns the message:

Hard disk drive running outside normal parameters - advise replacing disk drive.

I believe that under the Sale of Goods Act I have a reasonable case to ask Dell to repair or meet the cost of repair. My problem is that I am not sure how to go about this. So far I have exchanged messages on Facebook. To be fair, this is at a very early stage, but I suspect this will be an interminable exchange of scripted responses!

What I want is:

- Diagnostics on current HDD. Online advice suggests that HDDs with failed boot sectors can be repaired.

- If HDD cannot be repaired, then I would like:

- Replacement HDD

- Reinstallation of Windows 10 and Office software

- Retrieval of data files where possible

Any advice on how I should proceed, what I should expect Dell to offer, and what I should expect to pay for myself?

Many thanks,

Justin

Did you buy from Dell or via a retailer ?

Most consumer rights relate to who sold you an item.

With an item this old, it is up to you to evidence that the item is faulty and it should not be experiencing such a problem within a reasonable usage period. Whoever you bought it from, won't pay for any testing of the item.

If the data was important to you, then you should have had back up storage. Outside of warranty, you would struggle with any claim for such issues as loss of data.

What you have to consider is cost of a new hard drive versus costs of trying to claim back from Dell/retailer. I suspect a new hard drive similar to the current version is not very expensive, possibly less than a professional inspection of the laptop.

On my laptops, i have seen various hard drive faults reported over the years, but i have always been able to fix them via software programs that analyse disk problems. I have never had to pay for such programs, as most companies offer a free trial version.