hard drive is done for...., need advice Options

[matt_bustos]

I just recently purchased a Toshiba laptop a week ago at circuit city and something is very wrong with it. Last night it froze while i was watching a movie and then I couldn't turn it off so i had to hold the power button down to turn it off. I turned it back on the next day and it had a black screen with an era popping up over and over. Mentioned something about the Intel celeron and it being unable to read or locate the harddrive. I spoke with a Toshiba rep. and this is what he informed me of. So i shipped the computer back to toshiba to get it fixed.

now here's my question. Can turning off a computer like that really mess up the hard drive to the point that it won't work?

[ThGreenMoFo]

I just recently purchased a Toshiba laptop a week ago at circuit city and something is very wrong with it. Last night it froze while i was watching a movie and then I couldn't turn it off so i had to hold the power button down to turn it off. I turned it back on the next day and it had a black screen with an era popping up over and over. Mentioned something about the Intel celeron and it being unable to read or locate the harddrive. I spoke with a Toshiba rep. and this is what he informed me of. So i shipped the computer back to toshiba to get it fixed.

now here's my question. Can turning off a computer like that really mess up the hard drive to the point that it won't work?

That's a standard feature on most, if not all, laptop and desktop computers. While shutting the computer down using that method is not really 'good' on the system it certainly can't cause major problems if done every once in a while; you'll lose whatever data you had open at the time though. So, no - outside some sort of bizarre 1 in a million circumstance, it's not possible that shutting down your computer that way would damage it in the way you are talking about.

[matt_bustos]

yea it really made no sense to me. thanks for the info. Actually the truth just came out, my g/f had the laptop on the bed and accidently spilt some gatorade next to the laptop and she said it might've ran onto the left part of the laptop, where there's an opening for the "exhaust" to come out. The thing is, it was working fine until i turned it off, but i definitly think this is what did it. I'm just praying that toshiba replaces the hard drive cause it's only a week or so old.

also a new question. Say i'm forced to pay to replace the harddrive, how much would something like that cost me?

[ThGreenMoFo]

That's a good question. I really have no idea what Toshiba charges to do something like that. If you are still under warranty, you get a semi-stupid technician, and there isn't visible gatorade inside, they'll probably just replace it for free.

I'm pretty sure, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, that they won't replace it (if they are going to charge you) without first getting your approval for the charges.

[matt_bustos]

yea i'm praying for a technician that just will do the work and not question it since it's so new. I mean do you think it'll be a few hundred? probably more? I have no clue how much hard drives normally run, i'm just hoping it won't be too much. Also there was no visible amount of gatorade anywhere on the outside of the comp, so i'm hoping for the best. Ill inform you how it goes and how much it costs if they fix it.