Forgive me if this has already been covered.

My Laptop (Sony VGN-S150 with Toshiba mk6025GAS HD) running XP SP2 was working fine then last week I started it up and got a BSOD. Oddly enough, I thought it was a RAM issue and so I started testing the RAM. I switched the places of the 2 sticks and got a OS not found message instead. Then I tried to repair the OS, but the HD wasnt detected. I tried FDISK with the same result. (The HD was still detected by the BIOS).

After doing some research, I thought it might be the boot sector, so i did an fdisk /mbr. I downloaded the Ultimate Boot CD and tried various tests including Diagnostics, AV, and HD tests. During the AV scan, no viruses were found, but many files could not be scanned due to 'invalid sectors'. I finally tried Salvation Scan and Repair and it seemed to clean up my disk.

Unfortunately all my data was gone, so I decided to install Vista Ultimate. The install went ok, and I was installing drivers when my computer suddenly froze and my my hard drive started making a loud constant noise which didnt stop until I manually shut my computer down. Now whenever I turn on my computer, the loud HD noise starts again and my disk isnt detected anymore.

Is it time for a new hard drive? I'd like to salvage this one, but I'd prefer to get a new one if I'm gonna have to go through this a lot.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

U should scan ur hdd with MHDD see the SMART report and scan the media then tell whats the story .