My computer wont boot up

[Sicy]

So I'm freaking out. Came home today and there was the blue hp start up screen displaying on my computer. I hit esc and it went to black screen and said 'reboot and select proper boot device'. I tried everything (I dont have a boot disc). Ran a diagnostic and its not detecting the Hard drive/drives. Opened it up and cleaned the dust out, removed and reinstalled the battery but it still won't boot up. It's a fairly new hp with windows 7. Is my hard drive toast?

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i suck when it comes to this stuff, but have you tried to see if you can boot in safe mode? though yeah, it might be your hard drive

 

[Canadiens1131]

Well if it can't find a boot device it has to be your hard drive.

If you need to recover your data, I suggest this: GRC?|?SpinRite Overview??
You can run it from a CD that the computer will boot into, and it is one of the most effective data recovery tools I've used.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Well if it can't find a boot device it has to be your hard drive.

If you need to recover your data, I suggest this: GRC�|�SpinRite Overview��
You can run it from a CD that the computer will boot into, and it is one of the most effective data recovery tools I've used.

 

[Liesje]

Well for about $30 you can get an external USB hard drive adapter. If the drive has issues like some bad blocks, messed up partitions, corrupt OS, etc you can almost always recover most if not all of your files just using the hard drive like any USB device and drag-and-drop your stuff onto another drive. I use it at work almost daily.

Apricorn Drivewire

 

[Sicy]

So basically I went to best buy to buy a hard drive and they told me I first need to call hp and order the recovery disks/OS because regardless even if I put a new HD in there I'm going to need to reinstall the OS. Ugh I've never had to deal with this before and the stupid comp is barely even 2 years old so I'm all stressed out.

Lies where does that plug into? From the hd to the adapter then to where? At least I still have my old comp which I'm using right now.

 

[Canadiens1131]

So basically I went to best buy to buy a hard drive and they told me I first need to call hp and order the recovery disks/OS because regardless even if I put a new HD in there I'm going to need to reinstall the OS. Ugh I've never had to deal with this before and the stupid comp is barely even 2 years old so I'm all stressed out.

Lies where does that plug into? From the hd to the adapter then to where? At least I still have my old comp which I'm using right now.

Do you have an acquaintance with the same edition of Windows 7? If they have their install disc you can just write down your license key from the bottom of your laptop, throw in a new hard drive, and install from that disc with your key.

Somehow I think you won't miss all the bloatware crappy software that HP throws on their computers by default.

 

[Liesje]

How old is the computer? Is it under warranty? If so, HP will send you a new drive which will already have an OS pre-loaded, or they will ship it with the install discs (just did this with a student last week).

If it is not under warranty, then yeah you will need to purchase a new drive (assuming the drive itself is the problem) which you can usually get for about $50 (I use newegg.com) and you will need some way to install the operating system.

Bloatware depends on the model. My Envy came with zero bloatware, in fact I've yet to reinstall the OS (which is usually what I do when I get a new computer, just reinstall the professional edition I get through MSDN). The low end models sometimes have enough bloatware to cripple the computer.

Sicy the adapter plugs in via USB. Basically it turns your drive into an external drive, just without a nice case. You will find it in Computer/My Computer and can access files as if you opened up your C: drive. The Apricorn Drivewire does 2.5" IDE, 3.5" IDE and SATA so if you have a SATA drive you might be able to find some SATA to USB for even cheaper.

 

[Sicy]

God HP support was so annoying. She was trying to tell me basically that they only have one compatible HD (the same one) for $166. Yeah right.. I'm sure I can just take the HD to Best Buy or Frys and get a compatible one for cheaper. And honestly I dont even need a terabyte of space, if I can get one with less space for cheaper I'd rather do that. They are however sending me the recovery disks and OS/Software for $20.

 

[Liesje]

I get the smallest, fastest drives I can, but I'm totally against storing 258438538764398 GB on a local drive anyway (for this very reason). I just need enough space for the OS and the files I'm actually working on. I would look at newegg, or tell us what kind of drive you need and we can offer suggestions. I haven't ever liked the prices and lack of selection at the stores. $20 for the recovery materials seems fair enough (as opposed to purchasing an OS for $100+).

 

[Sicy]

The HD I have now is a Western Digital
Wd-10EADS-65M2B0

The computer specs are
HP Pavilion p6310y Specs - Desktops - CNET Reviews

 

[Sicy]

So I got the recovery disks and still couldnt get shit to work. Couldnt even get into bios. Really depressed. Off to get a new hard drive.

So what do I do when I get it? Just plug it in and put the disks in?

 

[gvox]

So I got the recovery disks and still couldnt get shit to work. Couldnt even get into bios. Really depressed. Off to get a new hard drive.

So what do I do when I get it? Just plug it in and put the disks in?

Sicy do you have a Hiram's Boot CD? Pretty old school but one or another of the utilities always saves my ass in these types of situations.

I will never buy another HP laptop though, not after my son's died literally 9 calendar days after the warranty expired and they refused to extend any sort of goodwill. 'Support' is far far too generous a term.

 

[misfit toys]

I will never buy another HP laptop though, not after my son's died literally 9 calendar days after the warranty expired and they refused to extend any sort of goodwill. 'Support' is far far too generous a term.

This. My son's laptop kept dying and they charged us $250 to finally fix it. HP is dead to me.

 

[Sicy]

This is turning out to be a nightmare. Ok so I got a new HD, plugged it in, put the recovery disk in, it started to say 'loading files' and then I got this error:

Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected with 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 then restart your computer.

wtf.. there is no USBs plugged in except the mouse and keyboard. At one point I did unplug the media bay from the motherboard, but I did plug it back in since then. It also seems like my cd rom drive wont always open .. could it be bad? But that wouldnt cause the computer to not read the hd? So frigging confused.

I also tried to put the new hd in my old computer and run the disks there.. well it actually started loading the files (more so than when I tried on the new computer) but then it said the system does not support the recovery disks.. so could it be the CD ROM? or something more fucked up like the motherboard? Ugh.. I have no idea what to do.

 

[Liesje]

Thoughts....

1. It probably gave you an error with the new HD in the old computer because I'm guessing the new computer is 64-bit and maybe the old one is not? So the disc isn't going to work in that computer, processor can't do it.

2. I would unplug everything, make sure all the contacts look clean (blow dust away) and plug back in.

3. When you try to boot the computer to the new hard drive, what is the error? It's going to say something because the drive is not formatted, but hopefully it will at least acknowledge that a drive is installed.

4. Likewise, if your BIOS can run diagnostics on a hard drive (like what you did when the original went bad), try that with the new drive just to make sure it recognizes the drive.

There's a difference between the drive itself failing and some sort of connection failing and sometimes that's hard to determine without starting to replace parts and see...

5. Perhaps the recovery disc can't work with an unformatted drive? Do you have any other recovery/diagnostic bootable discs or even a Windows XP disc? Like something you can boot off of, get to a command prompt, and have it format the new hard drive before reinstalling the OS from the HP disc.

 

[Sicy]

Thoughts....

1. It probably gave you an error with the new HD in the old computer because I'm guessing the new computer is 64-bit and maybe the old one is not? So the disc isn't going to work in that computer, processor can't do it.

Yeah that's correct but it seemed to almost work until that point so it makes me wonder if some other hardware issue is going on in the new computer.

3. When you try to boot the computer to the new hard drive, what is the error? It's going to say something because the drive is not formatted, but hopefully it will at least acknowledge that a drive is installed.

It gave me the message above about the USB or CD rom failing, then it wouldnt do anything. Back to the screen that said 'insert boot media disk then press any key'.

4. Likewise, if your BIOS can run diagnostics on a hard drive (like what you did when the original went bad), try that with the new drive just to make sure it recognizes the drive.

I believe it does recognize the new drive in BIOS, it is in the boot priority list but its hard to get to BIOS. It has not always been responsive when trying to get there. It just hangs on the black screen.

5. Perhaps the recovery disc can't work with an unformatted drive? Do you have any other recovery/diagnostic bootable discs or even a Windows XP disc? Like something you can boot off of, get to a command prompt, and have it format the new hard drive before reinstalling the OS from the HP disc.

HP assured me it would work with a new drive and the geek at best buy did too.

Gonna try to borrow another cd rom drive and try that, and then I give up. Gonna call a tech or take it somewhere.

 

[Sicy]

Well it's the motherboard. Bye bye computer. I'm gonna look into that USB hard drive adapter to get my files off once I can afford a new computer :/

 

[Liesje]

You could replace the board and get a new one with multiple SATA ports (I think most of them do anyway? I'm not real "up" on desktop computer technology). Then you wouldn't need a new computer or the adapter and you'd have two drives (not a bad idea).

 

[Cactus Annie]

i

does tjis work?

 

[bono_212]

No.