Apparent hardware failure on HP s5-1114 desktop

Thanks Bob. Does it clear that bar already by running onboard HP diagnostics twice from booting via ESC key. Everything checked out OK except the HD SMART error 303 Imminent Failure.

I guess something with mobo could have changed since during transport over here it's PSU stopped working. Any theories and could that affect mobo, if all precautions are taken during replacement?

I was going to boot Hitachi Drive Fitness CD test, then if necessary to get data back try Spinrite. But I won't use that HD beyond that since I was able to get a replacement new 160gb (they only use 30gb) Seagate SATA for $25 on Amazon.

That sounds like a good plan. I would do data recovery then Hitachi test. Sometimes if the drive is really on the way out the test will be the last thing you will do with the drive.

Any recovery program is OK. Lots of folks have had good results with Recuva also.

I have their data from Dec reinstall so don't have to sweat it, would just be nice to get latest file set if possible.

Drive diagnostics tested all good then.

Well that's what I tell everyone: get that data first!

USPS is worst. They can't get a package out of that mess. Supervisor is waiting for the other carriers to come back to see who CPU was sent out with by mistake. Then an hour later they close for long weekend. I doubt she'll even call me back.

The HD was found in the return bin because seller from Amazon put Ave instead of Way on it. But I don't need it first, need PSU. Route supervisor said he saw it there and thought it might be for this big complex with familar address and Unit number but was going to send it back anyway.

Question on BIOS post. It has already cleared the voltage check to POST, correct? So I have no reason to believe mobo is bad at this point since it posts and then pauses failing to hand over to HD. I'm trying to think of what could keep HD from booting if its detected and only has failing SMART, but that may be enough? Bad boot sector? Anything else?

This is interesting because it finally connects the PSU failure to HD not booting, but if a failing PSU might have not been providing enough voltage to boot HD, would it then have been able to run HP diagnostics from boot which is R/W from the HD?

I guess what's hard to wrap my head around (I'm not a hardware guy except casual) is that HD is functioning enough to run bootable HP hardware diagnostics on all hardware, failing the HDD. Shouldn't that be enough function to also boot it unless the boot sector is what's bad?

I would think that if you can run HP diagnostics, and they are on the hard drive, then the hard drive is good. It is good in that it spins, can read data, and communicates with the SATA controller and the motherboard.

It could be a bad or corrupted boot sector - a small portion of a MBR drive, right in the beginning, that tells the BIOS that it is a boot drive and to look for an OS to boot there.
However, when the boot sector is corrupted we usually get the "no disk found/no bootable media" error message.
So it might not be that.

If the Windows boot files are corrupted that could produce the problem, wouldn't it?
Like a BIOS, once the system hands off to Windows I'm finished (out of my depth)!

But if that were the case you should be able to run System Repair from an Install DVD to fix it.

What exactly happens when you boot (step by step - message by message)?