Boot up problem

[daryl61]

my hp pavilion will not boot up. have tried to enter system restore from boot screen but it will not open. it does allow entry to setup screen and also boot screen

 

[Tmagic650]

Sounds like a hard drive failure...

 

[daryl61]

how do I now check for hard drive failure

Thanks for the reply Tmagic650.
Is there a simple way to check the hard drive for failure?
Can i just insert it into another computer as a piggyback or even remove the hard drive from a known working computer and try mine in there?
the other issue with rebooting is that the recovery and operating programs are preloaded to a differnt drive letter within the one hard drive.
as you can see i do not have a very good knowledge on the internal workings just a very basic understanding of parts.

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes you can piggyback or just install the second suspect hard drive in a second computer and save files if possible. Is it XP or ?