Inspiron 3437, HDD failure after 4 months?

or maybe that is just a Bios issue?

I see also: 

test results:

PS I already tried to update the Bios, but it failed and didn't update anything.

Thanks

Long story short, you don't want to update the original BIOS that came with the unit!  Another thing, who worked on the computer, was ESD practiced?  If not component[s] will/could have shortened life.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=what+is+esd+protection&qs=AS&pq=what+is+esd&sk=AS3&sc=8-11&cvid=E5B86578F91046E6AF763BA079729636&FORM=QBLH&sp=4

Hey @Teetertotter  thanks for your reply.

I don't know about this ESD thing.

Nothing special has been done on my laptop.

To make it even better, I just noticed that the system doesn't recognize the additional RAM module (I inserted this morning before trying to reboot), that I got from the factory as a warranty replacement. Weird. It worked fine before the disk change. 

You mean I should not update the bios? Ok I won't try again. But anyway, the update was a bit scary, so better I don't try this again. I don't know why Dell insists on the support site to update.

Another thing, the cmos battery fails but I am not able to solve that bc it needs to quit almost every piece. 

I wonder if this "disk error" isn't rather a driver or bios issue. 

Thanks @nyc10036 

Regarding my license. I bought this one with windows 8.

Microsoft support told me I have to reinstall win 8 first, then upgrade again to 8.1 and next to win 10. And even they were not sure if I can upgrade to win 10 from win 8 anymore, bc the delay has expired.

I don't even know how I can possibly install win 8, but that seems really complicated.

I have a very slow internet connection, and download 5 Giga windows image takes a week (not joking) - the only way I see is to clone my disk with the win 10 already installed.

I really did use the new disk since maybe January, so it's just been 2 and a half month. Crazy if my laptop wants a new hard disk every 2 to 3 months. 

If your hard drive is not detected, you won't be able to update your BIOS the traditional way.

Your choice is to either try to update the BIOS using a USB that has FreeDOS image and boot into FreeDOS and running the BIOS executable. Not sure it will work for your laptop. https://pingtool.org/bootable-dos-iso-bios-upgrade/

Or to buy a new hard drive.  You won't lose your Windows 10 license if you only change hard drive. You will have to install Windows 10 and then the drivers.

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@nyc10036 wrote:

If your hard drive is not detected, you won't be able to update your BIOS the traditional way.

It rebooted since. That's how I was able to run the Dell diagnostique on the support site. 

But I tried to update the bios before, and it stopped on a black screen, and finally had not updated anything when it came to life again. 

First thing to do is download the service manual for your particular notebook. You'll find that manual as well as all the drivers for your notebook in support Downloads using your Serice Tag Number.

In that manual, you'll find several methods to update your BIOS the best and safest way it to update with a USB Thumb drive and you'll have your BIOS open and update from there. 

If your hard drive is, in fact, failing at 4 months it should still be in warranty. Thats good and bad, if you can get tech support to send you a new one, good if you have to send in your notebook for them to replace it not so good. SSD is much more reliable and very fast both are fairly reasonably priced nowadays.

If you're able to get it running again you can try to repair it with chkdsk C: /f  https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/40734-drive-error-checking-windows-10-a.html

If you're experiencing a windows issue and you can get into windows you can try to repair your windows using DISM Tools 

If you get it running again I would suggest Clone to a new SSD or hard drive  Macrium Reflect Free works really well for Clone or creating an Image on an external drive that you can restore to your new SSD or Hard Drive. How to use MR  

Thanks @Clintlgm  One more question, may I park this image on my external HDD, without formatting it? I have all my backups on that drive and don't want to lose them. 

Yes MR I linked you too, you should download and install ASAP and create that disk Image. A complete Disk Image will restore you right back to the point you created it. On the same hard drive or on a new hard drive

Thank you @Clintlgm 

I will try all your repair tools, since I was able to reboot the laptop.

Currently I am downloading the DiscWizard on the Seagate website.

It would be cool if I could safe an image of my OS plus applications on an external drive, and than put that back on a (new or same) drive. 

Though it bothers me to buy another drive si soon. The bluescreen "Storage exception" started showing up very little time after installing the new drive. Maybe it's not installed correctly. 

I need a 1T drive, it's still expensive in SSD. 

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@Chrisadell wrote:

Thanks @nyc10036 

Regarding my license. I bought this one with windows 8.

Microsoft support told me I have to reinstall win 8 first, then upgrade again to 8.1 and next to win 10. And even they were not sure if I can upgrade to win 10 from win 8 anymore, bc the delay has expired.

Total BS from Microsoft.

Last month I bought a used Lenovo on eBay. The Lenovo originally had Windows 8, but its hard drive was wiped clean.. There was a Windows 8 sticker on the bottom. I immediately installed Windows 10 v1809. Windows instantly activated from the Windows key that was embedded on the motherboard.

I have a working Windows 10 laptop!

.

.

I imme

Yes the only formatting down by MR is your USB Recovery Thumb Drive. Read the Tutorial I linked you too it explains all. and if you have questions you can reply there Kiri or someone will answer any question pretty quickly. The Images you create are just stored on your External drive. I create Descriptive folders for them since the actual file names are kind of cryptic

Wow that would be so cool if I could install a fresh windows on the new disk.

Even the tec guy who installed my new drive and configured it cloned my old disk for the same reason, as said Microsoft. Then he just updated windows to 1809. Therefore the new disk inherited all the BS from the old disk.

Maybe if I just reformat that "new" disk and start over with a clean install, and that would repair it ?

I found this article http://www.domstechblog.com/signs-of-cmos-battery-failure/

that basically says that a failing cmos battery can cause all kinds of issues.

Maybe that could solve my various issues.

But how the heck I gonna do this? I saw newer dells, where you can change the cmos batterie just like you change a memory stick.