Did I break my HDD while formatting it?

[Sifro]

Hi everyone,
a friend of mine has given me an old notebook (HP Pavilion dv6) asking me to format it.
It contained an OEM version of WinVista, and here's what I have done:

1) I inserted a clean Win7 DVD (I own a legitimate unused key, it was an ISO with just SP1 preinstalled) and started the installation.

2) The laptop completed the first phase of the installation smoothly and without any errors. It rebooted automatically and before it could boot into Windows (but after the shutdown process was complete), I turned the PC off as I was late.

3) A few hours later, I tried resuming the installation, but I couldn't get past the POST phase! The computer stalls at the initial screen (the one with written "press esc to access the bios menu"). I tried pressing ESC to access the bios menu, but nothing happened.

4) I tried to remove the HDD, the system passed the POST phase and I could access the BIOS menu!

5) I tried plugging another HDD with Ubuntu as Operating System, it booted fine and worked flawlessy.

So basically unless I unplug the laptop's original HDD, I can neither access the BIOS menu, nor boot from CD-DVD, nor of course boot from HDD.
Other HDD seem to be working fine.

Now I'm wondering: what happened?

A moment ago I was installing Windows without any issues, and after rebooting, I won't even get past the POST phase if I don't unplug the HDD!
Is it even possible to break an HDD by shutting down the PC instead of rebooting while installing Windows?
Or do you think it's just an incredible coincidence?

I feel so guilty for breaking his PC...

EDIT: when I try to boot the PC with the original HDD plugged in, I don't hear any "beeps" and see no error messages... it just gets stuck.
After I press ESC for some time, everytime I push a button the laptop makes a beep.

 

[Paperdoc]

No, you can't break a HDD that way. You CAN leave it with bogus data on it that the boot process cannot figure out, and that could cause it to freeze when it tries to boot from that device.

I can suggest a couple of things.

First, how are you trying to enter BIOS Setup? It sounds like you are waiting for the boot process to complete and you get the screen prompt to press "Esc". Try this instead. As soon as you get the POST started - right after turning on the power - hold down the "Esc" key until the POST completes and the opening screen of BIOS Setup appears. (On many systems the key to enter BIOS Setup is "Del", but you say the normal messages tell you to use "Esc".) You hold it down because you can't know exactly when in the whole POST process the system will get around to checking for a key pressed. I fully expect that the BIOS screens will show you that the HDD is there and working. But apparently it is not bootable, which is exactly what I'd expect from your story.

Now, if you get that to work, next adjust the machine's Boot Sequence. You need it to boot first from the optical drive, and second from the HDD. After setting that, place the Windows Install disk in the optical drive and SAVE and EXIT. This should boot from that Install disk. Your first step should be to delete all the Partitions on that HDD so it is truly empty. Then go through a normal Install.


Now, if you cannot get that to work, then maybe you need to use another tool to completely wipe that HDD clean. The handiest - and FREE - thing for this is to go to the website of the manufacturer of that HDD and download their HDD testing utility suite. For example, if it's a Seagate HDD, get their Seatools for DOS. If it's from WD, get their Data Lifeguard. In each case, download the "for DOS" version because you need a version that can run by itself. What you get is an .iso file that is a complete image of a bootable CD. Then you need a CD to burn it to, and a utility able to burn an .iso image, such as Nero. You burn that .iso file to the CD, and that becomes your bootable optical disk.

Now you put that utility CD in the optical drive and boot up. It will boot into a mini-DOS and offer you a menu of tools. You need to ensure it is operating on the HDD you're trying to fix and NO OTHER drive. First, run the Short Test of the HDD to be sure there is no actual failure of the hardware. If you have lots of spare time you can also run the Long Test, but probably not necessary if the Short Teat is passed. Now find the Zero Fill tool and run it. It takes a long time to write Zeroes to EVERY Sector of the unit. (In doing so it also triggers in internal self-diagnosis and fixer.) When this is finished, the drive is completely empty and should have NO Bad Sectors to worry about. Remove the diagnostic disk from the optical drive, replace it with the Windows Install CD, and reboot into the Install process. This time you do NOT need to delete any Partitions because there won't be any. The cleaned HDD is empty just like a brand new HDD. Just Install normally.

 

[Sifro]

Hi, unfortunately it couldn't boot from the optical drive either (it was already set as first boot choice), and I had no luck keeping the ESC key pressed since the beginning

I was almost going to trash it, when I found out that the very same HDD worked on a different laptop (WTF?!)

What I did to fix it in the end was to connect the HDD to my desktop linux box, clear its partition table with fdisk and completely erase the first 100MB using dd.

Then, I could succesfully boot from the optical drive and restart the install process.

To be honest, it's still a mistery for me, but well, it works.

 

[Paperdoc]

Hurrah for you, you found a good solution!

 

[Sifro]

Hurrah for you, you found a good solution!

Thanks, and thanks to you for taking the time for writing your long previous post.