Macbook pro fell from the dining Table

Question

Hi guys
My daughter just dropped my macbook pro from the dining table to the floor .
The Macbook was on at the time when it fell, i quickly picked it up, but heard noises coming out from near the DVD drive.
Since then the macbook is really slow, takes ages to start and keeps processing constantly.
Browsing is slugglish! there is a delay in typing and browsing using mouse etc.
Having read some posts already, i am begining to think that its the hard disk that seems to have gone.
I tried running some hardware, but it froze after 59 secs so had to restart again.
Can someone please help me in terms of checking or what i could do to  just ensure that its the hard disk and nothing else? Since this is accidental damage, which isnt covered under the warranty, can someone advise which HD would be best to replace it with? what does apple use?

Answer 1

Instead of running the Repair Disk routine in Disk Utility, you can start up in Single User Mode and run fsck:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
That will repair the hard drive directory if the drive is in good mechanical order, possibly resolving the ballkiness mentioned in your first post. If the drive has suffered any damage in the fall, directory and file corruption may return quickly. I recommend backing up the hard drive ASAP if the machine will run long enough to do it.
You can try running Apple Hardware Test without the Applications disc. If you have a unibody MBP and your hard drive has never been reformatted, it may work:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509