Hi snapdragen,

A HDD failure could be caused due to various reasons. But a hardware failure is inevitable. It is subject to fail at some point. Many systems last for years without any issues, while few systems might fail on the first day of purchase.

How did you confirm the HDD has failed? What is the exact issue with the system? Have you run the diags? If not, restart the system and press f12 key and choose diagnostics and run the diags to confirm the failure.

If the system is under warranty, contact us via Twitter - @dellcares - and we shall setup a service call for you.

If there is no warranty and you wish to order the parts yourself, then you could contact http://www.parts-people.com/ and order the parts through them.

Either way, once the HDD is replaced, you would need to install the OS on the new HDD. If you do not have the OS media required, please contact us via Twitter - @dellcares - and order the same.

Let us know if you have any other queries.

The failure was confirmed by an computer tech, he ran all the diagnostics. It failed the Hard Drive Bad Sector Test, the Cooling System Test, and there was a HD mechanical failure, according to the report.  I have to say, a failure after owning this laptop for a little over a year, pretty much guarantees I'll not buy another Dell product.  To pay $1700 for a system, then have to put another $500 into it, ridiculous.