Dead Laptop Drive?

[Equilibrium_FOOL]

Several weeks ago my brothers laptop crashed, and I am just getting around to fixing it.  The laptop was a cheap HP (horrible products) computer, with a decent touchscreen.

 

The laptop: HP Pavilion TouchSmart 15-b167ca quad core AMD A4, with windows 8.1/8.

 

The problem:  Laptop not booting, simply black screening with no other information.  I powered it down, and removing battery.  Last night I opened the computer to access the Hard Drive (a 2.5in Seagate), so I could identify what was wrong by connecting it to my main computer.  When I connected it to my computer, I powered down, plugged it in, and powered up; my windows wouldn't boot, and I couldn't access the BIOS.  So I unplugged the drive to see if my computer would boot without the added drive, it did and I could access the BIOS again.  I then connected the drive to my computer while it was running, it spins up but my computer doesn't recognize it.  I tried with Disk Management, and DiskPart, to no avail.

 

Several months ago my brother got some virus, and he struggled to remove, he finally did, however maybe this is the viruses doing?

 

Does anyone have any ideas?  Is more information needed?  Should I just buy another drive and load windows? 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Don't you have another 2.5" drive laying around somewhere? Pop it in the laptop to see if it really is the problem before investing in a harddrive for a computer that may very well be stone dead.

[Equilibrium_FOOL]

Don't you have another 2.5" drive laying around somewhere? Pop it in the laptop to see if it really is the problem before investing in a harddrive for a computer that may very well be stone dead.

 

I can put my computers ssd in?

[Hans Christian | Teri]

I can put my computers ssd in?

 

That's very possible but maybe also a little risky. On further thought, how does the laptop react to booting it up with no harddrive installed?

[Equilibrium_FOOL]

That's very possible but maybe also a little risky. On further thought, how does the laptop react to booting it up with no harddrive installed?

 

Fine, I think the I can even get to the BIOS.