HP pavilion wont bootup

hi all, i believe i have destroyed my laptop...it gets stuck on boot up. i just went into sys config and unchecked "No GUI Boot" and i also like an idiot disabled (i believe it was) "HP Utility Configuration" from startup programs. i was attempting to speed up startup so i assumed that if it said "HP" then perhaps it was not needed as the case with other HP items that startup such as the HP health check or whatever its called. i talked to tech and they quickly guided me to hard drive test which failed so was quickly told the hard drive is broke....that'll be $284.24. this was the only option i was given. ive tried recovery, safe mode and many other things with no luck. i thought i could goto command prompt and type "msconfig" and just reverse the damage i have done but "msconfig" is not recognized in this command prompt.
do i have anyother options? HP pavilion DV6406nr Vista home edition. it did not come with a recovery cd and is just barely 3 monthes older than the 1 year warranty.

 

Did u try boot the Vista disc?

 

hi, it didnt come ith a vista disc unfortunately.....i had to make a complete recovery CD and it still had problems after reseting the whole thing to new-like factory settings....HP is certain its a bad hard drive....but thats HP and of course they want u to buy from them.....is their another option....i have since given up and just plan to save for new hard drive......when i used the recovery CD it reformats the drive so i dont know if theirs a cd that would repair the mess its in now.......seems like alot of missing/damaged files...

 

Can you press F8 when starting up your computer to go to boot options? One of those options should be "repair the computer". When you go there, there are several options including "open command prompt". If you open one, you can run chkdsk c: /r. I would note any errors you get and post them to us. We may be able to determine if the hard drive is failing from that.

 

So lets see if I get this right. U have a recovery cd (that you think is messed up somehere). This recovery cd you have used and still have problems?
Could u list the errors and or problems the recovery cd stated?

And I believe :major Mark on that 15 months is pretty rare for a hard drive to crash out....

 

did that fix things?....I just posted an issue with my dv6000:

here it is: I just posted so i still have it on my notepad

HP DV6000,Windows XP,2 years old
recent issues b4 current NON BOOT STATUS:
Avast antivirus had been picking up some files that couldnt be deleted
I was getting popups...
comp. would start up on its own from hibernation state after a few minutes...this was happening for about 4-5 days

I started to clean it up
scans, spyware scans, hijack this
defrag

returned home after a couple days.
when it would not boot from its hibernatory state

Black Screen: offered 3 safe modes and normal modes.>all of which resulted in a blue screen that appeared only for a few seconds asking me about potential changes in software and antivirus i think

I put the recovery image on an external drive.

I am having issues burning that to DVD.
(using a friends hp dv9000 laptop)
stops due to Buffer Limit error (i think that is what it said)
CAN I USE CDS OR DVDS FOR RECOVERY DISCS
tried nero,sonic,avs...(one of them said it couldnt fit it on a 4.7 dvd+r....I dont know why it would just make a set of discs as such)

Recovery=10.3 gigs of files

So I tried to see if I could install UNBUNTU (5.1 Linux)...it had a Boot error during the installation.

I do not think the Hard Drive is screwed...

I transferred most of the important data prior to this implosion...but I wanted to obtain a few more things.

If i need to get a new hard drive: can I only upgrade to a 160gig 2.5"
part # 438485-001
and is it true this model only takes 2 gigs of ram?

I am so very thankful for any and all help regarding this...I am stressed over this and want to enjoy this time of year....my birthday is coming soon too...I live in ohio...ok thats enough about me for now....THANK YOU

 

i did have a hp but it lasted 2 years and the wireless broke then the the whole lot broke so these laptops are awful i reccommend you give up on hp

p.s they are one big mistake

 

HP is not the best in the world but certainly not the worst.
I have been running an HP pavilion very hard for over 2 years and nothing has broken yet.
When you got the PC you had the option to make 1 set of recovery cd/dvds if you have done that then you will just insert the cd/dvd in you optical drive and restart the PC it should automatically boot from the disk.
This will be a new setup and will remove all previous data but it should get the PC up and running.

The only other thing i can think of is during bootup press F8 key repeatedly and you should get into the advanced boot menu there you can try "last known good configuration".