My laptop crashes on startup and I think the hard drive is why.

[Wolfo95]

Yesterday my laptop crashed. After that I tried powering it on only to see it crash on start up with a blue screen. After that it said diagnosing your pc, then preparing automatic repair. The automatic repair does nothing and so it repeats the diagnosis. After that it repeats the futile automatic repair before allowing me access to advanced boot options. I tried an option for reseting it but that proved futile as it said it couldn't be completed.

I have had this laptop for about 6 years and the hard drive has been making a clicking sound for a year or two now.

[WAWood]

@Wolfo95 

This issue is almost always due to a failing drive.

If your PC is new enough to support UEFI, you can use these steps to test the hard drive: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00439024

If not, to check the drive you have to follow these steps:
1) Press Esc key repeatedly, several times a second, while rebooting the laptop. Do NOT hold the key down, just press it over and over.
2) Eventually, you will see an HP Startup Menu
3) Press the Function key for testing the hard drive (usually F2) and let it run.