Laptop won't boot, keeps running system repair--help?

Hi, there. Okay, so yesterday both my laptop, an hp Pavillion
dv6700, and my mom's, an hp G60, decided it'd be cool to stop working.
(What're the chances of that?) And I've already typed up this post
earlier but my computer (my mom's laptop) froze and shut down just as I
pressed Submit, so I'll try to be brief.

This morning I called HP tech support and they had me run a hard disk
self test (or something) and the test failed so they ordered us a new
hard drive. I couldn't keep talking to them for free about my laptop
because the warranty ran out on that, but I ran the same test on my
computer and got (after about ten seconds): *""Test Status: #10009 --
Replace Hard Disk."*


So this is what's been happening with my computer:

Every time I turn it on, I first get the HP welcome screen thing, then
it will either go straight into Startup Repair, or it'll give me a
screen with the option for "Launch Startup Repair (recommended)" or
"Start Windows Normally." And then launch startup repair anyway.

So I'm stuck with startup repair and eventually it'll stop and notify
me that it failed to repair the problem, sending information will help
Microsoft find solutions, etc, etc. Then I get the options of Finish
(which will shut down my computer), Cancel (which'll restart my
computer), and see advanced options (which will ask me for a password
that doesn't exist because we never set one up). Yeah, to sum it up, I
can't log on or load windows vista at all.


That "Replace Hard Disk" error sounds...bad. I have a lot of important
personal files on that computer that I haven't backed up. I'd saved
about half of them a few days ago, thinking, "Hey, I'll do the rest
tomorrow. It's not like my computer's going to crash before the week's
out." It's also bad because replacing the hard disk will cost money
that I'm trying to save up so I can have a chance at paying for school
next sem.

So is it definitely my hard drive? And if so, and there's absolutely
no way around ordering a replacement, is there -any- way to retrieve my
data? I really don't know what I'm doing, please help?


--
Anne.B
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

HI, Anne.

I have bad news - and good news, maybe.

The bad news you already know: You need to replace your hard drive.

The good news: You probably can recover your data from that failed hard
drive.

I've never had a laptop at all, but your problem sounds generic. I've had
several failed hard drives. They DIE! Many computer veterans repeat the
mantra: It's not a question IF your HDD will die, but only WHEN. That's
the main reason for that other mantra: Backup, BACKUP, BACKUP!!!!!

> I have a lot of important
> personal files on that computer that I haven't backed up.

Chances are good that only the critical startup files on your HDD are
corrupted and that all or most of the data that you have saved can still be
rescued. Just be sure that any rescue attempts don't write over anything
on the drive.

> It's also bad because replacing the hard disk will cost money
> that I'm trying to save up so I can have a chance at paying for school
> next sem.

We all understand this issue! But you probably have no choice. How old is
that computer? Is there any chance that it can be replaced under warranty?

Whether free or not, after you get the new drive installed, there's a good
chance you can hook up your old drive via a cable and transfer the files
from it onto the new drive. As I said at the top, I've never had a laptop,
so I can't tell you how to do this, but if you have a geeky friend or a
competent local computer shop, you should be able to get this done for
little or no cost. Still another mantra: There's more than one way to skin
a cat! ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"Anne.B" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi, there. Okay, so yesterday both my laptop, an hp Pavillion
> dv6700, and my mom's, an hp G60, decided it'd be cool to stop working.
> (What're the chances of that?) And I've already typed up this post
> earlier but my computer (my mom's laptop) froze and shut down just as I
> pressed Submit, so I'll try to be brief.
>
> This morning I called HP tech support and they had me run a hard disk
> self test (or something) and the test failed so they ordered us a new
> hard drive. I couldn't keep talking to them for free about my laptop
> because the warranty ran out on that, but I ran the same test on my
> computer and got (after about ten seconds): *""Test Status: #10009 --
> Replace Hard Disk."*
>
>
> So this is what's been happening with my computer:
>
> Every time I turn it on, I first get the HP welcome screen thing, then
> it will either go straight into Startup Repair, or it'll give me a
> screen with the option for "Launch Startup Repair (recommended)" or
> "Start Windows Normally." And then launch startup repair anyway.
>
> So I'm stuck with startup repair and eventually it'll stop and notify
> me that it failed to repair the problem, sending information will help
> Microsoft find solutions, etc, etc. Then I get the options of Finish
> (which will shut down my computer), Cancel (which'll restart my
> computer), and see advanced options (which will ask me for a password
> that doesn't exist because we never set one up). Yeah, to sum it up, I
> can't log on or load windows vista at all.
>
>
> That "Replace Hard Disk" error sounds...bad. I have a lot of important
> personal files on that computer that I haven't backed up. I'd saved
> about half of them a few days ago, thinking, "Hey, I'll do the rest
> tomorrow. It's not like my computer's going to crash before the week's
> out." It's also bad because replacing the hard disk will cost money
> that I'm trying to save up so I can have a chance at paying for school
> next sem.
>
> So is it definitely my hard drive? And if so, and there's absolutely
> no way around ordering a replacement, is there -any- way to retrieve my
> data? I really don't know what I'm doing, please help?
>
>
> --
> Anne.B

Your Hard Drive has gone for a permanent vacation up in the sky. Save your Data and
replace

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"Anne.B" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi, there. Okay, so yesterday both my laptop, an hp Pavillion
> dv6700, and my mom's, an hp G60, decided it'd be cool to stop working.
> (What're the chances of that?) And I've already typed up this post
> earlier but my computer (my mom's laptop) froze and shut down just as I
> pressed Submit, so I'll try to be brief.
>
> This morning I called HP tech support and they had me run a hard disk
> self test (or something) and the test failed so they ordered us a new
> hard drive. I couldn't keep talking to them for free about my laptop
> because the warranty ran out on that, but I ran the same test on my
> computer and got (after about ten seconds): *""Test Status: #10009 --
> Replace Hard Disk."*
>
>
> So this is what's been happening with my computer:
>
> Every time I turn it on, I first get the HP welcome screen thing, then
> it will either go straight into Startup Repair, or it'll give me a
> screen with the option for "Launch Startup Repair (recommended)" or
> "Start Windows Normally." And then launch startup repair anyway.
>
> So I'm stuck with startup repair and eventually it'll stop and notify
> me that it failed to repair the problem, sending information will help
> Microsoft find solutions, etc, etc. Then I get the options of Finish
> (which will shut down my computer), Cancel (which'll restart my
> computer), and see advanced options (which will ask me for a password
> that doesn't exist because we never set one up). Yeah, to sum it up, I
> can't log on or load windows vista at all.
>
>
> That "Replace Hard Disk" error sounds...bad. I have a lot of important
> personal files on that computer that I haven't backed up. I'd saved
> about half of them a few days ago, thinking, "Hey, I'll do the rest
> tomorrow. It's not like my computer's going to crash before the week's
> out." It's also bad because replacing the hard disk will cost money
> that I'm trying to save up so I can have a chance at paying for school
> next sem.
>
> So is it definitely my hard drive? And if so, and there's absolutely
> no way around ordering a replacement, is there -any- way to retrieve my
> data? I really don't know what I'm doing, please help?
>
>
> --
> Anne.B
> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>