No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key

It's not detecting the HDD... see if it's firmly inserted in.. next see if the BIOS detects the Hard Drive and see if changing the BIOS Hard Drive setting with S.M.A.R.T. disabled helps.

About it being worth taking to be repaired, it will probably cost you more than buying a new hard drive.. so if the problem persists, buy a new hard drive and that will solve it.. you can later insert the hard drive on a USB enclosure an hopefully it will be possible to recover your personal files.

Also I know nothing about MACs but this seems like a hardware issue, but if the problem persists, and if you have a bootdisk or the installation DVD, try to repair the startup.. sorry I can't help you on that, but if the problem started suddenly it's quite possible to repair it with a few simple adjustment in the BIOS or at most with a new hard drive.

Macs don't have a BIOS. But then, an HP notebook isn't a Mac. Wrong forum I suspect.

OK Thanks.. as I said, I don't know a thing about MACs but I had already responded when I noticed the forum it's on... so I edited the response.

Hello MEATHEAD here It sounds to me like you do not have your boot
device enabled possibly. It needs to be enabled via bios Go in there and
look for (whatever) key changes your boot device and enable it.

Hello MEATHEAD here If you plan to buy a new HDD, CRUCIAL sells Hdd's
along with data transfer hardware so you can save all your data on your
old HDD Reasonably priced