OS will not boot

[nordicsair]

I have an hp firebird 803. A few days ago, I downloaded and installed some windows updates. When I performed the recommended restart, my computer could not get past the "windows starting" screen.
I have all of the data from the drive, so I don't mind wiping it, but can't even install a new OS. The current OS is (or was) windows 7. I've tried booting to Ubuntu and Windows 8, but they also get stuck on the loading screen. Windows 8, for example, will load the windows logo, but the little white gears never start turning.
I am able to access the bios to adjust my booting drive, so I don't think that's the issue.
When I boot to my hard drive's windows 7, it gives me the option of a normal boot (freezes on loading) or a system repair, which fills the bar and then does not do anything.
When the problem first started, I was able to access system recovery from the bios menu, but all of the options just froze. Now I can no longer get to that screen.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mbreslin1954]

Normally I would say your hard drive is failing, but it sounds like you've tried booting Linux and Windows 8 from another device, I assume an optical drive? If so, I can't think of anything that would prevent you from booting from multiple devices. It sounds like you have a hardware problem. Is the system still under warranty?

 

[nordicsair]

Normally I would say your hard drive is failing, but it sounds like you've tried booting Linux and Windows 8 from another device, I assume an optical drive? If so, I can't think of anything that would prevent you from booting from multiple devices. It sounds like you have a hardware problem. Is the system still under warranty?

I was trying to boot those other systems from a flash drive, which I was making sure to select from the bios menu.
If it's relevant, I was able to run a hardware diagnosis, which didn't turn up any issues (but looked like it only checked my hard drives and memory).
I got the machine in 2009 with a 3 year warranty, so I don't have any more coverage.

 

[mbreslin1954]

It's not always easy to boot an older PC from a flash drive, so I would not draw any conclusions from that failure. A re-install of the operating system is your best bet. That would tell you if the problem is your hard drive, which I suspect it is. I'm pretty sure Windows will fail during the install. The problem is that you'll need an optical drive, since booting from flash drives doesn't seem to work on your PC, and you'll need a Windows install DVD.

This site will get you an ISO image of a Windows DVD. You'll need something like imgburn.exe (free) to burn it to a disc. Windows 8 can do that natively if you have access to a Win 8 PC.

http://www.w7forums.com/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads-t12325.html

 

[mbreslin1954]

Even if it's not a hard drive going bad, which it might not be since your diagnostics gave the hard drive a clean bill of health, it could just be Windows is so hosed up that a re-install is needed.

 

[nordicsair]

It's not always easy to boot an older PC from a flash drive, so I would not draw any conclusions from that failure. A re-install of the operating system is your best bet. That would tell you if the problem is your hard drive, which I suspect it is. I'm pretty sure Windows will fail during the install. The problem is that you'll need an optical drive, since booting from flash drives doesn't seem to work on your PC, and you'll need a Windows install DVD.

This site will get you an ISO image of a Windows DVD. You'll need something like imgburn.exe (free) to burn it to a disc. Windows 8 can do that natively if you have access to a Win 8 PC.

http://www.w7forums.com/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads-t12325.html

I just tried booting to Linux from my optical drive and ran into the same issue of stopping without any installation.
Does it say anything about my hard drives if I was able to plug them into an external device and extract whatever I needed without an issue?
I'm fine with windows requiring a reinstall, but I can't seem to figure out a way to get to that point.
I appreciate your posts.

 

[TenPc]

The HP firebird 803 is specifically Windows Vista Home Premium purpose built "PC". there are no drivers or supporting updates for any other OS.
You might be able to install a later OS but there will be no chipset drivers available.
4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM memory (2x2048MB)

Review -
http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/review-hp-firebird-803/

Edit -
There are updates for Windows 7 x32/x64 at HP
You should consider doing a REPAIR so that the original configuration is kept rather than a new install. The original install would have been upgraded from a Vista installation.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3872045

The max ram is only 4gb, the PSU is only 350 watts so you should be aware prior to changing the video card to something "better".

Should you actually get the system running again, disable windows updates and only use HP for updates of the PC.

 

[nordicsair]

Even if it's not a hard drive going bad, which it might not be since your diagnostics gave the hard drive a clean bill of health, it could just be Windows is so hosed up that a re-install is needed.

No idea why, but was able to boot windows 7 through a cd (while linux failed on the optical drive). I did a system restore and will avoid problematic driver updates.
Thanks for the help.