1) have checked bios cannot see hdd mounted.
That is BAD -- the disk-drive could have "died".
2) tried a seagate hdd works fine so connections in laptop seem to be working
That shows that your motherboard is GOOD, but that your disk-drive is BAD.
3) can hear hardrive trying to do something as can hear harddrive usual noise, continous noise for about 5 sec before getting the error message
That is BAD -- the disk-drive is "dying".
4) no rattling or crackling noise from drive apart from the above
That is BAD -- none of the files can be read from your disk.
i have created a ubuntu boot up disk which allows me to access laptop but does shows error when locating hdd,
That is BAD.
once in ubuntu i can access internet but it does not show the windows partition of the harddrive, only shows ubuntu as opearing system, confused.
That is BAD. Only the CD/DVD disk has been mounted -- Ubuntu could not mount the disk-drive.
In regards to ubuntu working does this mean the hdd is ok?
No, it means that your motherboard is working.
and is there anyhting i can try via ubuntu to locate the files?
No. The disk-drive is "dead".
There exist commercial "data recovery" services that can try to repair your device, just long-enough to rescue and copy your files. For example, see:
https://services.seagate.com/index.aspx?lng=en-US for a "no data - no charge" guarantee.
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