Hello everyone, noob here.
My old-by-computer-standards HP Pavilion has decided it doesn't want to start the OS. I have windows 7, and when I try to boot the computer, it threateningly states "Hard drive failure is imminent", forces me to choose between f2 which continues the boot up or f10 which sends me to what I believe to be the bios settings. I am afraid to mess with the bios settings (other than boot priority, which I am familiar with), so I usually choose f2. After pressing f2, I see the "windows 7 is loading" screen, but after a minute or two of nothing happening, the computer resets.
That does seem like something that would be caused by a hard drive failure, but I also tried booting from a Ubuntu live USB, which I thought wouldn't need the hard drive to function. Does Ubuntu live USB actually need a hard drive to start up, or is there a second problem with my computer, a RAM failure for example.
Thanks beforehand. Don't criticize me if I sound like a complete idiot please, because I barely know enough terminology to write this post.
My old-by-computer-standards HP Pavilion has decided it doesn't want to start the OS. I have windows 7, and when I try to boot the computer, it threateningly states "Hard drive failure is imminent", forces me to choose between f2 which continues the boot up or f10 which sends me to what I believe to be the bios settings. I am afraid to mess with the bios settings (other than boot priority, which I am familiar with), so I usually choose f2. After pressing f2, I see the "windows 7 is loading" screen, but after a minute or two of nothing happening, the computer resets.
That does seem like something that would be caused by a hard drive failure, but I also tried booting from a Ubuntu live USB, which I thought wouldn't need the hard drive to function. Does Ubuntu live USB actually need a hard drive to start up, or is there a second problem with my computer, a RAM failure for example.
Thanks beforehand. Don't criticize me if I sound like a complete idiot please, because I barely know enough terminology to write this post.