Recovery disks cannot be read

[dken]

I have a Compaq Presario F730US, had it about 3 years, got corrupted OS files somewhere, somehow (vista home premium), decided to just wipe, and do the system recovery thing. My recovery disks just cant seem to get read by the dvd drive.

First my recovery dvds are not scratched, i take good care of them.

 Second every other cd/dvd is read with no problem, I'm actually using active boot cd in order to be online now.

Error messages vary, from missing active partition to a couple I cant remember.

Basically my laptop OS is not functioning, it wont read the recovery disk, it wont fully wipe clean, booting from dvd drive first doesnt work (because the recovery disk isnt being read), and every other suggestion Ive googled doesnt work,

I think I need to toss this hard drive and start fresh, but my recovery disks arent being read...Im stuck. Please help!

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Try running a test on the HDD by tapping away at f10 as you start the PC to enter the Bios menu.  Under the advanced or diagnostic tab you should find the facility to run a test on the hard drive.  If this passes, you should be able to order another set Recovery Discs from HP on the link below.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00810334&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en

Best wishes,

DP-K

[dken]

I cannot access anything in BIOS, recovery panel; I've run a scan disk from this active book disk and it comes back as clean.

[DavidPK]

Hi,

If you can access another PC, try this to check whether the problem is hardware related.  On the link below is the latest copy of Ubuntu.  Download this and save it to the Desktop ( Step 1 ).

Ubuntu

The instructions to burn this to create a bootable CD are also on the link ( Step 2 ).  When you have created this, insert it into the drive of the PC you are having problems with and restart it to boot from the Ubuntu CD.  This OS can run entirely from the CD ( ie it does not need to be installed on your Hard Drive - Step 3 ).

Run this OS and see if everything runs Ok as this should then tell you whether your Hardware is Ok.

Best wishes,

DP-K

[dken]

OK, Ive followed  advice given, tried running the HD diagnostic in BIOS,  it failed to complete and my laptop shut off about 65% of the way into the test.

Hard drive failure? Maybe this is why I can boot from Active Boot Disk (I'm using that to be online here right now), but cant boot from my recovery disks?

You think I should order a new set of recovery disks from HP along with new HD?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

That would be my next step, but it's impossible to say for certain whether this will solve the problem.

Best wishes,

DP-K