Computer appears to be goosed, message coming up is that there is a primary hardware fault. Is this repairable, would it be worth getting it repaired or would I be better buying a new machine?

It's a Hewlitt Packard effort, with all the softwear stored in a segregated part of the hard drive and I do not have any softwear back up discs, so presumably if I needed a new hard drive I would also have to buy all new softwear?

Stuart it is most likely the hard drive, but impossible to say without looking.

It will be repaireable, depending on the age of computer etc will decide if it is feasable to repair.

With it being HP you can purchase a set of recovery discs direct from HP (they charge a fortune) the alternative is to have windows re-installed using the existing serial number (you loose all the fancy HP branding)

hope that answers your questions a little.

i think it is possible to restore to their factory setup with a new hard drive, i managed that with my dell laptop when i upgraded.

you may need something like partition magic; create the same size hidden sections on new hard drive, copy over all hidden files from old to new, make the hidden section bootable and reboot.

it is easier said than done but it is do-able.

gregor u upgraded your drive, stuarts may be damaged,

but hopefully not.