Hi, I'm a newbie and am using my own computer since my husband's computer is the problem.
He has an HP Pavilion Slimline desktop runniing Windows 7, Home Premium. It was purchased in August, 2012. Yesterday but would not open Windows. I tried turning it off then on and pressing F2 repeatedly and ran Smart Check which it failed. It gave a failure ID but it was long and I didn't write it down. I donn't think it matters anyway due to later developments. The memory test was ok, it passed.
I restarted and pressed F8, launched startup repair and got the message, "A hard disk problem is preventing windows from starting." At one point I saw: 1720 Smart Hard Drive detects imminent failure. Failing drive: SATAO, failing attribute: #B8
Today, turned it on and pressed F8 repeatedly and the only response was a black screen and a loud noise, like winding up, running briefly and running down. Then silence, same black screen, but power button shows that it's on.
This has got to be a hard drive failure or crash, something major, right? Duh? If there's nothing else I can try, it's headed for the trash heap. Any thoughts?