I have my niece’s Pavilion dv6700 laptop that crashed with no hard drive detected in BIOS. I bought a used HD (SATA, same specs) and got Vista recovery disks from HP matching the laptop. The reinstall begins with “Windows Loading Files…”, then starts Recovery Manager, which freezes every time at 23%, eventually reverting to blank blue screen. There are no error messages or further activity. I spent a day on this, then called HP. Because the new hard drive self-test passed, they said it must be the hard drive connector, requiring motherboard repair (out-of-warranty, $250, haha). Is there any way I can fix this myself? I can’t afford a new laptop right now (my own Pavilion ze2000 is also in its death throes, with a damaged mobo and good hard drive that won’t turn on).
I’ve searched all over the web but haven’t found anything on this particular issue.
Thanks in advance!
