I think the hard drive in my laptop has died

If I switch the laptop on, all I get is the lights across the top of the keyboard, the processor fan and the LED above the disc symbol flashes orange slowly... (it used to light up bright blue when it fired up / accessed the disc)

Any ideas on re-starting it without buying a new HDD?

When you try to start is the hard drive making any clicking or rattling noises?

what happens when your battery is completely flat? could it be your power supply's died, and so the battery's flat? with a dead HDD, youd normally get some message on the screen. i don't know what light you're talking about though...

take the battery out, plug the power suppply in and try again. they normally still start without a battery in, so...

if it does the same again, there's some fault with the laptop. if nothing happens at all, power supply's goosed, and it was trying to start on the battery, but can't

No sound at all from the hard drive.

Battery and power supply all working fine.

I've put an XP disc that I got from Rob on here in, and tried switching it on. It won't boot from that either

had a similar thing with an old Tosh, I took out the HDD, took the cover off, (the bit that says warranty void) and then plugged it back into the laptop. When I switched it on, I span the HDD up with a toothpick or similar to get it started, and then the motor kept running. Worked about three times, just enough to write all the data to back up.

hope that helps

First thing to try with laptops is disconnect from mains and remove the battery, let it sit for a couple of minutes then put the battery and power back and reboot.

If you do have to buy a laptop HD they are very cheap on ebay but check which type you require carefully .