Well, your post went through at least. Best wishes on getting a new hard drive real soon. I had that happen to my desktop not that long ago. Its always days setting everything back up. Hope you have your OS disks?

Just a thought, if you have a thingymajig cord that lets you use USB devices with your phone, how about downloading Linux Mint or Cinnamon or whatever, install it on your USB stick and use Linux to take care of your freelance work in the mean time?

I know from experience you can boot a laptop without a hard drive using Linux (Cinnamon and Mint) on a USB stick. Whether Linux has the programs (or equivalent) that you need is a question mark though.

that's a tough moment for being a freelancer, Just my thought and opinion why don't you post a quick commission work over devianart until you get a brand new harddrive? I used that way before while my drawing tablet died but hope everything going good and well.

HP G6

This is the drive that came up when I put the replacement product code in at overclockers https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-292-SE
Also, in the inbuilt testing stuff at startup, the Hard Disk SMART check past, but the short DST failed. What does that mean anyone?

Unfortunately, it means that HDD is failing or failed and needs to be replaced.

Id gathered that much - I meant more specifically.

Gog wont let me attach a snap of the results (including error code and product id either)
See if ththis works... https://db.tt/7Fws2DwN

Well I am not sure whether DST pinpoints the exact issue with the HDD even with that Error ID, could be bad sectors in the HDD that caused the failure. The bottom line is that HDDs do go bad over time and are prone to failure from time to time.

Need to be more specific.
Unlikely as that's a full sized 3.5" drive. Can't remember the last time I've seen a laptop using anything larger than a 2.5" drive.
That HP considers the hard drive as failed and is willing to replace if it's under warranty. Old HP thread, different model, but relevant. The SMART check passing, or rather not having failed yet, means little in itself as HD manufacturers are quite generous with their failed metrics. Less RMAs that way.

I always look at the SMART attributes directly. Anything with a recent version of smartmontools will work, such as a current Linux distro or GParted Live. Then sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda likely or whichever device the hard drive is detected as.

Hard Disks are the weakest point in the average (no overclocking or leading edge parts) computer. I don't think that is going to change when mechanical drives become obsolete and solid state drives take their place. (assuming current tech for solid state drives).

To Sachys: No measurement will change one fact : Your hard disk is dying and needs changing.

For those interested the second weakest point in the average computer is the power supply and the third is the video card.
In the old days I would put dial up modems in second place.

Cheers guys.
Will try and find the specific product name. Back shortly.

Okay, so dug out the box and it says: HP Pavilion G6 2186sa

Think this is the page for it (loading poorly on my phone) http://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c03397543

Here is a link for the Maintenance and Service Guide that includes your model. As you can see on page two it does need to be a 2.5" drive & no taller than 9.5 mm. This page has a nice breakdown on doing the actual swap.

Keep us posted, Sachys!

yerp - and don't accept any biscuit-like substitutes that happen to fit in the slot. Too many crumbles ;)

Great to hear from everyone, but wanted to make sure the Cave was safe.

Saw this, beware!

Caption was, as follows: "Holy Toledo Batman, do you think Alfred shit in the Batcave again?!"