Just updating this to thank everyone for their help and suggestions.
I did get a new hard disk and that worked immediately. I then had to decide if I went through Packard Bell's convoluted Recover Disk Replacement Service which would cost me £50 or just buy a new copy of Windows and install afresh. In the end I decided on the latter as it would take Packard Bell a dithering 14 days and me sending forms back and forth just to get all the bloated crap they normally include and the convenience of their driver partition. Buying a new copy of Windows also meant I could use the old license key on the laptop and keep the new key for a fresh installation and I had a Windows 7 disk for future repairs. So I did that.
Just re-installing and configuring his software as I type and configuring an online backup service too this time, something I'd not done with the kids computers but as they do more homework on them, I think I'd better had. I'll leave all the Minecraft stuff to him, he knows more about it than me anyway.
So thanks all.
I did get a new hard disk and that worked immediately. I then had to decide if I went through Packard Bell's convoluted Recover Disk Replacement Service which would cost me £50 or just buy a new copy of Windows and install afresh. In the end I decided on the latter as it would take Packard Bell a dithering 14 days and me sending forms back and forth just to get all the bloated crap they normally include and the convenience of their driver partition. Buying a new copy of Windows also meant I could use the old license key on the laptop and keep the new key for a fresh installation and I had a Windows 7 disk for future repairs. So I did that.
Just re-installing and configuring his software as I type and configuring an online backup service too this time, something I'd not done with the kids computers but as they do more homework on them, I think I'd better had. I'll leave all the Minecraft stuff to him, he knows more about it than me anyway.
So thanks all.
