Getting error about hard disk 3F0 - but hard disk is readable from another computer

[CHIPDAWES]

I have an HP pavilion DV7-3060us running Windows 7 home 64bit

Just this morning it decided to not boot and gives me an error 3F0 complaining about a missing boot disk.

I have a cloned disk from several months ago that I put it and can use for now.

I put the "bad" drive in an external housing and verified that I can see it from another computer.

I tried running a chkdsk on it which "fixed" some errors but I still get the 3F0 error.

I'd really like to fix the broken files that don't allow the system to boot.

Any suggestions on how to do so?

Thanks in advance (and I WILL credit good answers)

[Mumbodog]

3F0 can be caused by 3 things

1. Bad hard drive or partition structure, erase the entire hard drive then use HP recovery discs to attempt reinstall of the OS and all partitions.

2. Bad hard drive data cable that connects it to the motherboard, replace the cable

3. Bad sata controller on the motherboard, replace the motherboard or laptop.

[CHIPDAWES]

Someone didn't read my posting.

I clearly stated that the hard drive was not defective and can be read when placed in an external housing.

The controller and cabling are not defective - they work fine with an old cloned drive.

The problem is that there are corrupt system files that prevent the system from booting and cause it to report the 3F0 error.

If I were to follow your advise and reformat the hard drive, I would wipe out all of my data.

This is the WORST possible course of action for this problem.

Is there anyone who reads / responds to this site who really does know what they are doing?

I would really like to repair/replace the corrupt system files but do not know how. 

[Mumbodog · Accepted solution]

I don't know what I am doing, but have a look at this article

http://mikemstech.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-perform-offline-system-integrity.html

[CHIPDAWES]

Mumbodog;

That reference is much better.

The recovery disk from HP looks like it wants to reformat my hard drive first and foremost - so I haven't gotten past screen one.  I DO NOT want my drive formated.  I really don't understand how and why this inane activity is seen as a desirable course of action.

But, based on the content of Mike's blog that you referred me to, I found this site at Microsoft that gives more complete guidence in using the sfc.exe utility that makes the corrupt files fixed. 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833#method2

This one tells how to interpret the SFC.EXE log file:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228/en-us

On my HP computer, I pressed F11 while booting so I could boot to the recovery partition and then selected middle option and then the command prompt.  I found that the recovery partition mounts my windows drive (normally C: drive) to the 😧 drive letter.

So, I did the command:

SFC /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

This took a long time, but reported that it fixed some files and was not able to fix some other files, referring me to the CBS.log file for details.

c:\windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

I was then able to boot from the (formerly) corrupted hard drive.

Durring boot, I got dialog boxes telling me that samcli.dll and msctfui.dll were corrupt (actually it said they were not windows files).  I tried to sfc.exe them to fix them without success.

I tried to do a restore to a previous save point, but system restore puked on all of the save points.

I copied the 2 bad DLL files from my old cloned drive (I'm guessing these DLLs don't change very frequently) to the drive in the computer and rebooted.

I had to reinstall my anti-virus programs and am now running a full scan.

The problem seems to be fixed.

Thank you for your oblique reference to the SFC.EXE program - that's what I needed to fix the corrupt files and save my butt.

Best Regards

Chip

[_UART]

There is a solution. If you have the  3F0 error AND checked out the HDD and found nothing wrong with it then you'll want to try the following [Content Removed]

1. When system boots up, press "F10" to enter the BIOS. If you pressed F10 too many times on make sure you clear any screen errors presented before proceeding.

2. Once in the BIOS Setup press "F09". This will ask you to "Load Defaults", which is what you want to do.

3. After pressing F9 press "F10" again to save settings and restart.

If you're still getting this 3F0 error, You'll have to manually erase the BIOS and update it via USB Stick. Try the following:

1. Format the USB flash disk’s filesystem to FAT16 on another computer.

2. Get the BIOS image from HP’s website (I use F15 version).

Download the BIOS update file from HP’s website (an exe file). Execute the BIOS update file on another computer. It will decompress the files. Select a directory to store the files and you can close the program. In the directory selected, we can get WinFlash.exe. Unzip WinFlash.exe using a program like WinRAR. We can find two .FD files. For my computer and the BIOS version I use, the two files are 306DF15.FD and 306EF15.FD. There are two model for Compaq CQ35 computers, so there are two .FD files. You may try one by one to see which model your computer use. Actually this model can be found in “BIOS Setup” (we can’t start it as the CMOS is bad)

3. Copy the file 306DF15.FD to USB disk’s root directory and rename it to 306D.bin. (the file may be different depending on the model)

4. Remove the AC power and battery from the lapttop.

5. Plug in the USB flash disk to the laptop.

6. Hold two keys: WinKey + B.

7. Plug in the AC power.

8. Hold the Power Button for 5 seconds, then release.

9. Push the Power button as normal to power on the computer.

10. After the laptop starts short beeping, release WinKey+B.

11. The laptop will keep short beeping for about one minute, it will power off itself after recovering the BIOS. If the laptop keeps long beeping or beeping for more than 3 minutes, the recovery fails, possibly because of the wrong image file or the USB flash disk doesn’t work on the laptop. In this case, you may try another image file or another USB flash disk.

Normally power on the laptop after recovering the BIOS and you will see the Compaq logo appearing again. Some models differ.

Original Source: http://www.fclose.com/b/software/3022/hp-compaq-bios-crisis-recovery-from-a-failed-bios-flashing/

[jeremyDP]

I have the same laptop and put in a new harddrive. I reloaded with OEM windows 7 64. Not the factory disks. Ifound after I removed the dvd i got the same error. It is a partition on the factory loads that the bios sees. I set the bios to boot to harddrive and gt the error. set it to boot to dvd and then I put the windows dvd in and dont hit any key while it is booting and it boots fine. I do not think its a bios update issue. I think its this specific bios looking for a spacific harddrive or a partition unique to hp defaut load.