Hard Drive damaged? Pls help!

[KlumpDud]

I have an HP Pavilion zv5230us running Windows XP.

A few days ago, it started acting really slow (for example opening an explorer window would take 20 seconds). I scanned for viruses and spyware and found nothing. I defragged my HD.

Then, it started acting even slower (e.g. 60 seconds to open up an explorer window or firefox). Then, I got hit with the blue screen of death, and it would restart. This happened 3 times, and now windows won't boot.

When trying to boot, I would get two alternating scenarios:

Scenario 1). Before it gets to Windows it says:

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 082)
Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation

For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM

Those last two lines (with PXE...) repeatedly flash and it will keep doing this forever until I power off.

Scenario 2). Windows would tell me that it was shuttdown improperly and gives me the choice to start in safe mode, normally, etc. Any of these options caused it to freeze.

Since I had backed up my hard drive, I decided to reformat and do a clean install of Windows using the CD. During setup, I deleted the old partition and created a new partition. Then it started to format the new partition (NTFS) but then gave me this error:

Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged.

Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to your computer. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult your computer manual or SCSI adapter documentation for more information.

You must select a different partition for Windows XP.

To continue, press ENTER

I'm not sure where to go from here. Is my hard drive damaged? Is it possible that the hard drive connection needs to be jiggled?

Normally, in a desktop, I would start replugging stuff in, checking cables, etc. However, I'm totally clueless about troubleshooting a laptop. I've never opened it up before.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[corkyg]

No need to open up the laptop. Remove the hard drive from the laptop and stick it in your Desktop with a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter and do the trouble shooting there.

You can use the drive maker's own tools- i.e., Seatools for Seagate, DFT for Hitachi, etc. They are free downloads.

 

[KlumpDud]

Update: It's a Toshiba MK8025GAS and the drive is making weird noises, louder than normal.

I was able to reinstall XP on it and boot it up, but it's still really slow and after about 5 minutes it will give me blue screen of death and restart.

 

[KlumpDud]

I'm running Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test (advanced). What exactly am I looking for when it finishes?

 

[KlumpDud]

Test Results:

Problem detected on disk drive. Please contact your HDD supplier for additional support.

Disposition code = 0x70

Does this mean my HD is fried and I need to buy a new one?