I have a new laptop HP-envy 15j-150sr.
I`ve erased OEM Win8 x64 and succesfully installed Win7 Pro x64. I left 200 Gb to install Ubuntu 12 later. When I tried to install ubuntu (keeping 2 ntfs partitions for a) windows and b) data) using for it 2 or 3 partitions for: 1. /dev/sda5 swap 6Gb and 2. /dev/sda6 / 194 Gb or 1. and 2. /dev/sda6 / 190 Gb and 2. /dev/sda7 /boot 4 Gb for Ubuntu itself I`ve faced with a problem it could not finished the installation indicating the boot problem (before installation I`ve made). Finally, I gave up with Ubuntu, but when I tried to enter BIOS (using f10) after all these manipulations, I could not do it. It simply showed black screen with "-" on the top left. After reboot I`ve tryied to update BIOS to correct the mistakes, I possibly made. I`ve downloaded a BIOS update from official site
and it seems worked smoothly, however, after rebooting besides BIOS problem I faced with "hard drive not found (3f0) error" as well as inability to boot from external drive (I`ve tested 2 USB-sticks, which worked properly earlier) - it simpy do not see any bootable drives.
It looks like I killed my laptop step by step, but I still hope there is a solution to repair booting at least from external drive, so I can copy my data and install Windows de novo after complete disk formatting.
I do not thik it is a hard drive failure since both BIOS and other bootable drives aren`t working, but I began SMART check (already passed) and Long test which is ongoing now.
I will appretiate any suggestion/recommendation will help to solve the problem,
thanks