My computer has a HDD with a very large number of bad sectors. Currently I am running Linux Mint Cinnamon Victoria as a Live DVD from the DVD drive, so it is running entirely in memory.

I had disconnected and removed other secondary HDDs that did not have any OS on them, but that has made the boot order change all by itself.

The problem is that the HDD does not appear anywhere. It does not appear in Disks, etc.

The desktop computer case and motherboard are both OEM.

Is the boot order wrong in what used to be called BIOS but is now called UEFI please?

The current boot order in the American Machines Aptio is:

1. P1: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224DB

2. UEFI OS (PO: ST31000524AS)

3. PO: ST31000524AS

4. Ubuntu (PO: ST31000524AS)

5. UEFI: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224DB

I do not know what the above means, or how it knows I've been using Linux. The DVD drive has to be first so that I can run a Live DVD.

Question: do I need to change the boot order, or has the HDD now completely and definitely failed?

Thanks.

(There was another Solved thread about the failing HDD under Linux Mint.)

Look for it in the results of running dmesg on the command line, (you might need to use sudo).

Probably best to pipe it to less to read through it.

5 seconds internet search: ST31000524AS

If this HDD has more than 0 bad sectors dispose it.

No you don't have to change boot order. Has nothing to do with 'seeing' the drive. If the live CD can't see the drive, the drive is most likely dead. Time to replace it.

Thanks, I did that command. It produces an enormous amount of text, I gave up trying to copy all of it. ("select all" only copies one page at a time).

I now realise that the Comreset failed errno 16 messages I saw during start-up mean that the hard-drive has completely failed 100%.

I only bought the computer two or three weeks ago. It has a guarantee.

Is there any way to find out if the rest of the computer is sound?

Thanks.

Hard drives & optical drives can often fail, without the computer having problems, but you could look to see if some of the small components (capacitors) on the motherboard have bulging rounded caps, can be a sign of imminent failure.

(Never had it happen, but have read about them being a sign.)