pc hdd help please.

giesha

Hi all, hope im in the correct place to ask for help. (sorry if in wrong place)

im looking at my sister laptop for her as its playing up.
i had her old dell inspiron off her (still working great.) when she got her new 1 (the unit that im looking at).
its a hp pavilion & she brought it brand new think it was from currys she got anti viruse pack added on, this was about 2 yrs ago or a little long 30mths..

just out of its garnette the pc played up & she took it into a pc repair place & she said it was around 120euro fixed. (cant remember what she said was wrong. & she as forgoten).

now..lately.. she said the pc dont work.
im looking at it, as i fixed the dell unit that she gave me, i replace the ram. the keyboard. & now its great. does me. it was locked as she forgot the user password, but i got in opened it, removed all the stuff she had on it, factory reset it.. & now she thinks im great to do it.. hence why im looking at her max 3yr old hp.

sorry for the write up, just to give you a full story in short.

but the hp is opening either on its own battery or in mains.
when you switch it on.. black screen with a (what id call is) water mark over the screen.
& a on screen message....BOOT DEVICE NOT FOUND
PLEASE ISTALL AN OPERATING SYSTEM ON YOUR HARD DISK>
HARD DISK (3FO)
F2 SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS
FOR MORE INFORMATION< PLEAS VISIT.....

i got a windows8 repair / re boot / restall discput this in & nothing happens.

ive emailed hp & they said it more than likely the harddrive.

if i put a new or refurbished hdd in the hp, will it take my windows8 restall disc.?

will this repair the hp unit.?
if i do replace the hdd, will the other stuff like.. internet card.. mouse pad.. sound card... all the other things work, or do i need drivers for all these.?

ive replace the hdd in my xbox360 & ps3 these work great with no other things.

sorry.... i have replaced the ram on this hp, did nothing.

any ideas please......
sorry for the long message. & thanks for your time reading.

thanks.

ED E

Yes, sounds like a completely failed disk. A new drive will resolve if that is the issue.

Yes, windows 8 will work if it came with that. If she upgraded to 10 when it was free then install 10 and it will automatically work instead.


Drivers is a mixed bag, sometimes they're automatic sometimes they aren't.
1. Get all the drivers from the HP website
2. Put them on a USB stick
3. Install windows on new disk
4. Insert USB and install all drivers
5. Let windows update find anything thats missing

tedpan

Buy an SSD, they are cheap enough these days.

giesha

hi.. thanks lads for your reply & the time it must of took you to read my post.

sorry tedpan i have no idea what you mean ..ssd.
i put it into google & it looks like a external hdd.
tell you what i did do tho talking about that. my brain wave was, i brought this, a link to it, (i have this exact 1 with me now)..

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/361343591125?ul_noapp=true

& i thought il strip down the hp again (i did it few days ago & removed the hdd & replaced it incase it had came loose or something).
so il take out the hdd from hp, put it into the carrier the run a test on it on my dell using something like the seagate hdd test program.
but i dont no how to work the thing, i have an 160gb hdd & i tried it but..i dont no, you any idea on this 1.?

thanks for your help any hows mate.

giesha

hi lads, again thanks for your help,
all i basicly can be is the hdd init ed e.?

will hp give them to me or will there be cost.?

ed e, i told you's it was damaged before, i think it may of been updated to windows 10 cuz she was saying something like 10 is better than 8 as if it goes down then it should repair itself.

i was just thinking put it back to factory build & it should know reconnize itself.

what do yo think about my idea...

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/361343591125?ul_noapp=true

i thought il take out the hdd from hp, put it into the carrier the run a test on it on my dell using something like the seagate hdd test program.
but i dont no how to work the thing, i have an 160gb hdd & i tried it but..i dont no, you any idea on this 1.?
will do anything.?

thanks ed e, you made it sound easy.

RossieMan

It's hard to understand your post completely, but no, hp will not give you a HDD for free.

You should look at getting an SSD, solid state drive as they're much faster to boot.

You'll be looking at 50 euro for a small one. Or just buy a HDD and use that. You'll need to do a fresh install of Windows, a repair disk is useless to you unless it contains a system image.

ED E

Your posts are far too difficult to read so Im bowing out.

challengemaster

giesha wrote: »

all i basicly can be is the hdd init ed e.?

Joshua J

challengemaster wrote: »

All it can basically be is the hdd, right ed e?.

OP unless you have data on the laptop that you really need then don't buy a tester, just get a new hdd and try it in laptop. As far as I know, if the laptop came with windows 8 you'll have to install windows 8 again then upgrade to 10 if she wants it.

giesha

hi all. how you doing.
sorry for my hard to read post.

but thank you for your time & help.

yes, sorry again my spelling of some words is wrong,
this is what i ment to say .. All it can basically be is the hdd, right ed e?. thanks joshua j.

il get a new harddrive (the same as whats already inside) then do as you say ed e in post2.

thanks again all.

wotzgoingon

As someone above said get a SSD(You didn't know what that is in above post so it is a Solid State Drive) way better than a HDD(Hard Disk Drive).

Wetbench4

An ssd is a hard drive with no moving parts, like a giant sd card. They are all the same size and will fit your laptop.

A hdd is a normal mechanical regular hard drive with a spinning platter inside that comes in two sizes, 2.5inch or 3.5inch. 2.5 fits laptops and 3.5 fits desktops.

Id recommend at least a 250gb ssd but if that costs too much just get a hdd but make sure its a 2.5inch hdd.

Regarding the hard drive caddy/carrier, if you put a hard drive into that and test it on your dell and nothing happens, then its a dead drive. Although sometimes it looks like the drive is working, its could be only working intermittently.

Open windows search and type in "this pc" without the quotes. Click on the result and that will open the file explorer showing all the connected drives. Then try plugging in the dodgy drive and see if it pops up.

giesha

hi.. thanks lads, i had a look on the net at these ssd, seems like a lot of folk are upgrading to these, but yes...there nearly if they are double the cost as the hdd.
not sure what she's going with.
but i learned a bit thanks all.

lads, a 750gb hdd, will i need a 750gb ssd. or will a smaller size be better. meaning are these ssd & hdd do they have the same brain power, or do you need bigger or small ssd to have same capacity as a hdd.
thanks.

wotzgoingon

Depends on what she uses the laptop for. Does she store much stuff?

In all honestly a small capacity SSD is far better. The laptop with run quicker and if she needs to store stuff she can always pick up a external Hard drive to plug in when she wants to save stuff.

Is nobody in your family into technology as I have quite a few Hard drives and external ones built up over the years.

giesha

to be honest, not really, i have the xbox1 (1tb hdd), but if i could get the games for the 360, i loved that unit. & my mobile phone is not touch screen, (cant stand them).

dont no what she save's or downloads really mate, i have her old dell laptop, the hdd os(c) is 136gb & its 98gb free space. i have music on the system ..pictures.. but thats about it, i use it for looking around the net.. buy off the net..

but she brought the hp with 750gb,
so a replacement ssd 250gb would be better, then if / when more gb is needed she can get 500gb external gb.... makes sense i spose...
keep this in mind if this dell plays up.

thanks.

Wetbench4

Something like this would do the job --> https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N5IB20Q/ref=twister_B072LMD24N?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Shiminay

Jebus, if you don't even know what an SSD is, nevermind what size to get, then maybe you should be handing this over to someone who knows what they're at?

giesha

thanks wetbench4, i looked at it, 65 for 250gb. same price for 750gb hdd.
il leave it up to her to decide..

but think with what you all have shown me if my dell hdd goes down then il get a small sdd.

thanks all.