Hard Drive Issue

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to post this, but my Pavilion dv5 hasn't been able to start up for a few days now. The issue began when I hooked up my external hard drive to my laptop and began transferring some files onto it. As they were transferring, I stepped away from the laptop for a bit and came back to a black screen saying that I need to install an operating system. The computer allowed me to run some tests, but the results were always, "Hard Disk Not Exist." While I do all of that. Even after powering up the laptop several times, it still does the same thing. First it loads the Hp image and then it takes me to a black screen with text telling me to install an operating system.

There is a grinding/clicking sound coming from withing the laptop. Upon opening a back panel and removing the hard drive, I found that clicking noise is coming from the hard drive. Since the computer doesn't recognize that any harddrive is hooked up to it, and the hard drive is making odd noises, does that mean that it no longer works and I need to get a new drive?

 

Most likely. It could be the HDD controller on the motherboard, too, but I think that's unlikely. I suppose you should see if it'll detect another hard drive or if the current hard drive will work in another machine to be sure...

 

So if I were to get a new hard drive, what would I need in order to get my computer back to it's just out of the box state? All I can think of are the recovery disks. Is there anything I'm missing?

 

I think the recovery disks should do it.

 

Yep, all you need is a new hard drive, and the restore DVD's.