System Restore breaks my computer please help :I

EpicLuigi1134 · 22 Oct 2012

Ok so i dont know what happened to my hard drive but it went KABOOM!

ok so not it real life but i have a very very old computer. Its one of em hp media center pc's from the 2007 or the 2006. my intel thingy is intel platinum 4. my windows is windows 7 and when i launch the system repair disk it does not sense my hard drive

and when i dont launch a disk in the computer and i boot it it says "please insert a boot disk or press a key to boot thingy"

whoops i didnt say the prob!

Ok so 3 months ago so i went omn my computer.
DRASTIC LAGG!! so i tried to see whats the problem. I had no malware, cause i had malware byte

and mse (just in case). Couldnt see the problem so you know i just cleaned the computer by getting rid of junk files with CrapCleaner. It still didnt solve it so i got gamebooster. that hardly worked at all! so i just did a system restore

but here is the acutal problem! so i left it to do the work (cause i had a system image to a earlier point) then uhh i for got what happened since it was a while ago!

so back to the main story!

i launched system repair thingy and it said i had no hard drive :O

woah so i did the command prompt to do chk dsk :I it worked but had an error. I forgot it but i also did sfc/scannow and the error was there is a system repair pending which requaires boot to complete! Restart windows and try again! WHAT THE POO! i did that. and it still says "please insert a blah blah or presss a key to boot"

so i really need help!!!!!

TVeblen · 22 Oct 2012

Hello EpicLuigi1134. Welcome to the forum.

First, check the cables and connections to the hard drive (computer off please).

Then, boot into the BIOS settings (usually by pressing F2 or DEL during boot).
Take note of the setting for the SATA controller (assuming SATA HDD - if a PATA HDD then ignore this). If it is set on AHCI you will need to reset this in the last step.
Go to the EXIT Tab and choose "Restore Defaults"
Exit and Save and then immediately go back into BIOS SEtting to change the SATA controller back to AHCI (if applicable).

See if that changes anything.

Please fill out System Specs. It is important for us to know what system components we are dealing with.

EpicLuigi1134 · 22 Oct 2012

the plugs are all in of course but im trying the thing you said to do right now!

ii did that but nothing changeed

TVeblen · 22 Oct 2012

You can try plugging the drive into another SATA port.

You can try that drive in another computer to see if is recognized there. This will tell us if the problem is with the drive or the PC.

You could also download and burn to CD a hard drive diagnostic program, which you can find on the website of your hard drive manufacturer.

If the drive can not be recognized in another PC and fails to be recognized with the diagnostic tool then it is highly likely it has died.

EpicLuigi1134 · 22 Oct 2012

ok ill make it simple

ok for some reason somthing stop system restore
it bricked my hard drive and now it is nolonger detected by window install and other stuff

my hard drive does work its just that the system thingy is preventing to boot win7

TVeblen · 22 Oct 2012

OK, I'll make it simple

When you get that message that says "please insert a boot disk or press a key to boot", that mean the SYSTEM can't find a hard drive with a bootable OS. The system is at the BIOS level, before Windows even starts to load. So forget about anything to do with Windows.

You could have a failed hard drive.
You could have a corrupted boot loader (therefore no bootable OS)
You could have a CD in the optical drive and the optical drive is set as the first boot device.
And more.

You have got to determine what is causing the "can't find a bootable drive thingy" before you can do anything else. That is why I gave you the suggestions I did.

EpicLuigi1134 · 22 Oct 2012

darn... failed hard drive..

anyone know where to get a hp media center pc hard drive ?

TVeblen · 22 Oct 2012

Hard drives are generic. Other than SATA connections or PATA connections, and physical size (3.5" vs 2.5"), they are all the same and can be used in any PC, including Apple, Linux, or Sun.

EpicLuigi1134 · 23 Oct 2012

but what i really dont understand is that when i do chkdsk is says there is a system repair thing and ill need to restart computer..................

so its detected by chkdsk... does it mean its still a failure?

TVeblen · 23 Oct 2012

No it does not have to be a failed drive.

I have mentioned a few tests for you to perform that will narrow down the problem. If we can determine what the problem is then a more direct solution could be suggested.

Since you have not responded with any results from these tests I can only assume that they all failed.

Or I could just start throwing out random fixes that might work.
For instance: run Startup Repair:
Startup Repair
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times
See if that works

More information = more help