hp pavillion 3330s won't start up

[dezero]

My PC recently started showing blue screen and then I got an error message saying: disk boot failure, insert disc and press enter. I was then advised to buy the disc from HP, which I did and now the message says: no harddisk found, system restore cannot be continued. I called HP and they want money to talk to a technitian even though the I brought the disc THEY suggested and it didn't work. I hope someone has some free advice, thanks

Greg

[TheOldMan]

The disk they suggested will not work if the hard drive cannot be found.  First look in the BIOS to see if the hard drive is actually found.  If it is identifies in the BIOS, then something else is wrong and we will go from there.  On the HP splash screen (when the computer first starts) there will be keys identified to show how to enter the BIOS.  Press the key indicated for  "setup", then look for the entry indicating the drive identity.  If that says no hard drive found, then check the connections for the drive to make sure it is connected both on the drive and on the motherboard.  When to computer is started, there should also be some noise (not much noise) from the hard drive.

Report back with the info.

[dezero]

Sorry for the late reply, I am still only using my phone. I went to a repair shop and was told to install a new hard drive and now it says "non-system disk or disk error, press any key to continue. I went into the BIOS of my new and old drive and everything is fine. Then I ran a diagnostics test that said the memory, processor and drive were working properly but the was an error message at the bottom that said " testing: boot path, error code: BIOHD-3.

I've been told by a HP technitian that the drive needs to be partitioned before the recovery discs can install any software, I'm stumped.

Any suggestions are greatfully appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg

[TheOldMan]

If the hard drive is new, never been used it may need to be "prepared".  Boxed drive usually have a CD with them to do that.  If it is a bare drive then what brand and type drive is it? IE: Western Digital 500GB SATA

[dezero]

Hello, thanks for the reply. The Drive is a western digital 320GB SATA, identical to the original drive.

[dezero]

For some reason It says solution solved but unfortunately it's not yet. i Can't seem to change that.

[TheOldMan]

Since the posts are being made with a RIM, there might be a problem.  Did the drive come with a CD?  If no, then Maybe a friend can assist but you will need to borrow or make a bootable CD so the new drive can be partitioned and formated so the recovery DVD set can be used, if the "HP technitian says that the drive needs to be partitioned before the recovery discs can install any software".  Can you borrow a friend's computer or have them make a GParted CD? http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

Make the Live CD and boot to that.  Make the partitions and format the drive NTFS

[dezero]

I tried that before but I think I didn't make the cd a live one. I just ordered the gparted and ubuntu cd's online. I wanted them anyway.
Thanks,

I'll let you know if it works.

Greg