Not sure weather Hard or Software problem

bootneck02

bootneck02

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A friend of mine gave me a Compaq Presario CQ56 to repair because he was not able to get into to the OS windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I have re downloaded the OS from the recovery partition. When the recovery starts it re formats the OS partition and re installs Windows ( apparently) re boots and then freezes on Starting Windows Page. My feeling a virus has infected the laptop and My thoughts were was to take out the hard drive and remove the partition re format the complete drive and re install Windows using My PC and and a caddy for his 2.5 drive. I asked him if he had Virus protection he said " Whats that" I swore. My other problem I do not like laptops and do not understand them much, but I took it on as a freebee as he has split with his wife and is being taken to the cleaners has 3 part time jobs total 34 hrs and would like to help him if I can. But I am lost on this one. Any help would be very much appreciated.:cheers:
 
Have you tried using the recovery partition to reset the laptop too factory spec ? No need to burn disks. Just restart laptop, hit esc key to get into the boot menu and if memory serves me its F9 to do a factory reset.
 
Yes Evan done that also tried CHECKDISC and that starts and freezes on the first search I have a feeling the drive is trashed:(
 
Head over to the HP site, maybe the HDD is still within warranty

Edit : Here is the relevant link to check the hard drive warranty
 
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Thanks for the link Evan it will be useful in the future. I have a replacement (Samsung) 320 gig on order from Dabs should arrive today or tomorrow. On the existing one I tried to re install the OS and no joy , then I removed the partitions and reformatted , then the BIOS could not recognize the drive. I then gave the Laptop to dude123 who is at IT technician and he installed a known drive the laptop recognized that drive so the opinion was new drive required.
 
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