Windows 7 laptop won't boot.

[Mr_Derp]

For the past week or so my brothers laptop hasn't been able to boot up.
I checked the windows memory diagnostic and this is what it says:

Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a driver connected to your computer

This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as an
external USB drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a
hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is
properly connected and the restart your computer.

File: \boot\memtest.exe
Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occurred.

I'm assuming this is a hard drive error, but I have no knowledge on operating systems.

[Akito8]

Go into the BIOS & ensure it's detecting the hard drive
if not, you could have a loose SATA cable or a dead drive

[Mr_Derp]

[QUOTE=Akito8;36970234]Go into the BIOS & ensure it's detecting the hard drive
if not, you could have a loose SATA cable or a dead drive[/QUOTE]
It's recognizing his hard drive so pretty sure it is a loose SATA cable.

Thanks for the help!

[Boatplugs]

Run diagnostics on the HDD. Dell and HP both have built in diagnostics on most of their machines that you can activate but mashing a certain F-key during bootup. If it's an HP mash F1 to open the bios menu from there run the diagnostics. I believe it's F9 for dell laptops if not try ESC or F1 to get the bios menu.