Sounds to me like the computer told you it was not getting
signals from the harddrive, and to connect it. This is probably the same as "crash". When you boot up the computer pings each hardware item to make sure it is functioning.

Our our Dell laptop crashed 2 yrs ago...and it did work enough to tell us the harddrive was not responding. I don't know how that can be either, but it did do that.

Our son replaced the harddrive for us and we reinstalled windows and took our files off the external backup we keep.
We didn't have restore discs for it, so lost alot of systems, like Media player etc. But it works as a backup computer if something goes wrong with this one, and we take it upNorth to download photos etc. Which I then move to this unit. The wifi still worked, when fixed etc.

I think the laptop harddrives overheat when left on for a long time.
We now keep the repaired one propped up a little so air can circulate better under it. I have an engineer's triangular ruler across the back so it is 3/4 of an inch elevated.