More frequent boot errors hard drive not found

[Gina68]

I am starting to get more frequent errors on boot or lock up of system that forces me to reboot but gives the error.  The most common error is hard drive not found.  I have done the OS reset multiple times to toggle Bios, but that stopped being effective.  Have also done hard reset.  Now the only thing that works is opening up the cover, pulling out the hard drive for a second, putting it back in, putting battery back in and restarting.  I have no idea why that works.  It is confusing.  So I don’t know if I should update the hard drive only to have the problem repeat with a new hard drive.  Please advise.

My system is this- 

Refurbished HP EliteBook 8470P 14.0" Intel Core i7-3520M 2.90GHz 8GB DDR3 1 TB DVD

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  Refurbished HP EliteBook 8470P 14.0" Intel Core i7-3520M 2.90GHz 8GB DDR3 1 TB DVD Windows 10 Professional 64 Bits

[WAWood]

@Gina68 

I notice you mention the PC is refurbished -- so do you know if it came with a brand new hard drive, or a used hard drive?

Asking because if it is the second, you need to test it to confirm it is not failing:

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.
If the drive checks out OK, then report that and I can provide you options for reinstalling Windows on your PC.