X: drive HP Pavilion d7 HD crash

Question

0) PROBLEM: no Win 7 Home Premium OA boot/ goes into SMART check failing error HD1 (301). reboot gives X: boot
1) Boots to boot drive X: (whatever that is!) and includes mystery G: drive.
Drive letters changed/incremented from pals’ *identical* machine ie:
Command <dir /a> reveals my D: is pal’s C:, E: is pal’s D:, F: is pal’s E:, G: = pal’s F:, X: and G: both aren’t on pal’s machine at all (pal’s Command Prompt is run from within Win 7 itself, while my Prompt is within HP Recovery Mgr>Computer Checkup ). Hopefully this already makes sense to you. I see few clear answers on web about where X: is being read in from - and no info on G: whatsoever. more in diagnostics...
DIAGNOSTICS:
HP Extended Disk Test (safe mode) diagnostics:
Initial Error Log Start Time on tests give error Dates 1/1/11, then after several tests error Dates are actual 7/27/14 (with 1/11 dates remaining earlier). FAIL ID:
90DX6W-67T76L-MFPX1G-60B203…..Hard disk 1.
Drive Scrubber boot disk initially listed no HD at all, but today it does indeed list a drive (which at least probably explains the 1/1/11 problem above?).
chkdsk says “…found no problems…” on all disks (Fdisk appears no longer available in Wind 7 Home Premium OA!? )
Mystery X: and G: partitions, as in #1 below, when booted from internal drive. However, Kaspersky’s boot disk in fact displays volumes correctly with C, D and E drives, plus a drive named “sda1” (system partition), which looks like the internally booted X: drive (w boot folder). Presumably that almost answers this question, but not #1’s behavior below, where internal boot bumps CD:, D>E, E>F.
HP Recovery Manager> Microsoft System Restore (option 1 doesn’t touch Personal Files) says:
“No restore points have been created…” (on my pal’s identical machine, these seem created automatically!/hmmm). I didn’t OK the undoable-Recovery.
___________________________________DETAILS:
2) DISK IMAGE: Can I use installers from my pal… it’s the exact same HP machine (we each bought the same computer at Best Buy). If yes, will this cause either of us any problems with dupe machine name or IP addresses, etc?
AND 3) is it possible to boot on an external USB drive (with or without an internal HD)?
I’m a former Mac user (and Roxio/Mac EQA tech) from the first Mac days now living in a Mac user’s PC-Command_Prompt nightmare. In middle of my Win 7 backup the hard drive “appears” to have crashed. I was gonna learn Windows after this backup! So much for figuring a drive would last at least a couple of years/sob…HELP (and thanks in advance for helping me to Love Windows…). I bought my HP Pavilion d7-1340dx notebook at the same time (and same exact model) as roomate’s, so comparison of drives at least helps the questions.
I've got System Mechanic from Target, but don't wanna use it if it doesn't fix this. Never posted anywhere before, but am de$perate Mac guy! HP laptops seem to have BAD problems keeping the hard drives cool (same with my pal's).
Cheers, Bryan, SF Bay area

Answer 1

Thanks for the reply - yes, I know the drive is going, going and I'm happy to have backed stuff up and get a new HD, but didn't know about "Create a system image," and so have no burned Create Image discs for my machine. That's basically  what I on about - either using roomie's Image (20 discs!), or repairing partition and burning my own from a hard drive that appears to work with an external fan on it....Heat's a problem with HP laptops, since both roomie and buddy both have heat issues...
re: Question 2) DISK IMAGE - The OS  "installers" is a Mac term for what PC's loosely call the "ControlPanel>System Security Backup Your Computer>Create a system Image" (burn your own CD's) which I only learned about during this crash.
I only made the "Create a system repair disc" but roomie has *identical* machine and I just burned her System Image discs.
Another forum said "...both computers must share the same set of discs or another set of discs should be ordered from HP..."
Question is what untoward affects would this have with net IPs, etc. I'm assuming with the 20 DVD+R's I did yesterday that it backed up all of her C: drive, meaning after Restore'ing her Create'd Image I'd have to delete her files from my computer, right?
re: Question 1) X: drive - given that I've been able to Backup files with an external fan pointed at my (overheated) Hard Drive, I was going to burn my own Create Image from my machine before it quits.
I suppose these are stupid Win Questions, but the last PC I worked on was an early 386. IF System Mechanic has a chance to fix this partition X: thing, say so and I'll try it, since fdisk appears unavailable in Win 7.
Don't know who you are or where you're at, but thanks to god and science for your input.
Bryan