Something wrong with comp... Possible bad harddrive?

Hello, just this morning i woke up expecting to see the sign in window on my screen, but instead, it said "No bootable device--insert boot disk and press any key"...

i have no idea what what happened. i left my computer running through the night, last using it at 12am. i woke at 9am. this has never happened before and was wondering if anyone may assist me. i dont know what information to say as there may be so much that pertains to this kind of situation. but i did run a diagnostics hard disk test, short and long test and it concluded functional. BUT the long test took an instant to complete. once i hit the enter key, it gave me an ok.

I contacted HP support via online chat services. but could only be helped for an hour, as i had to leave for work.

it loads to the Compaq screen and after that, goes to the error message about no bootable device. and DURING the COMPAQ screen, the hardrive is making a sound as if someone is rocking back and forth in a squeaky rocking chair. during the ERROR message, the sound stops and its just a hum. which leaves me to believe something wrong with the HDD? might it of overheated?

 

Good luck, my other computer doesn't even say that much .

 

the syptoms i had when i had a bad hard drive were,
getting a blue screen on start up, (making me reinstall windows)
when windows loads and doing normal tasks a blue screen appears,
computer would just slow down for not reason,
disk check appears every boot up,
INPORTANT: when doing a disk check yhou get BAD SECTORS and CANNOT be REPAIRED.

try to reinstall windows and do a disc check

 

Sounds like your HD is totally dead. The Disk checking application probably couldn't even gain access to the HD to check for damaged clusters.

The symptoms dondadah is describing are the symptoms of a damaged HD. Yours is most likely mechanically broken. The disk mechanism is probably bust, or one of the disks have come loose.

 

Try reinstalling the operating system.
If the operating system does not detect a harddrive in your laptop, than your laptop harddrive has unfortunately fried.
If it installs, I recommend running a disk check, usually in my computer.

You can also try entering the Bios of the laptop. Just check to see that the boot device is the harddrive.

Good luck man

K-TRON

 

Sorry but it sounds like a dead HD. Did you use the BIOS's diagnostic HD test?

What brand drive is it btw?

Have you tried running the HD manufacturers diagnostic tests?

 

Hello everyone, sorry i havent responded. the other laptop has issues with limited webpage visits as well as my sisters desktop. my laptop was the only computer that could function properly.-im at school now
Thanks for all the tips and information. i've tried some of the things mentioned, like the tap/smack trick, the diagnostics short/long test as well as reinstalling and with the help of you guys as well as a professor or TA, its been concluded that my HDD is Dead
i've set in an order for a replacement just yesterday and it should be here on monday... i hope that things go well... but man, all that media lost. i was foolish to keep forgetting to back up. but maybe it was best that some things were lost. i was getting addicted to my notebook...

twas a hitachi. yea, i tried the short and long test and they both concluded as soon as i hit enter. both passed... as budding has said, it probably doesnt even know its there... but yay, i get that "clean" feeling again in a few days. i'll just pretend the 30 gigs of media never existed.

 

my laptop is now running properly. im now attempting reestablish all my past programs and files...

i think i have partial information inside my external HD from a previous backup and was wondering, how do i access the files?

 

You could purchase an external enclosure and see if that works. However, I doubt it will work seeing as your laptop was unable to recognise the HD.