Weird things happening to my computer.

Mrgeek, I have been in recovery mode, and it WILL NOT let me refresh/reset/backup anything. I tried the back up several times, it would get to 100% and load for an additional 5 or so minutes, then it would give me a message telling me the back up failed. Which, is why, I did the chkdsk in the first place, because I have no other options to save my personal data and files. But, I did notice, that my computer is trying to restore back to Windows 8.1, which I'm sure you know is the OS that came on the PC.

" I have been in recovery mode .... I did notice, that my computer is trying to restore back to Windows 8.1"

You are in the Windows Recovery or HP recovery console ? Windows should look like the screens in this tutorial - How to Use the Advanced Startup Options to Fix Your Windows 8 or 10 PC

"it would get to 100% and load for an additional 5 or so minutes, then it would give me a message telling me the back up failed"

The HP recovery drive (usually D drive) boot files may have been corrupted or inaccessible if it's trying to recover to Day One. You realize this would have erased your files ? If you want to do this, you needed to have created a usb recovery drive which copied this partition (you're entitled to one copy). If not, you can order recovery dvd's from HP (obviously this will take a few days to get). Go to this link for more info - HP PCs - Obtaining HP Recovery Discs or an HP USB Recovery Drive | HP® Customer Support

Did you try the HP SMART disk check ? I suspect there's nothing wrong with your HDD if the Reset option got to 100%. At this point, I would see if you can start in Safe Mode with Netwrking in the Windows Recovery Console under Troubleshoot/Advanced options/Startup Settings in above tutorial so you can try to save your files to ext media before more drastic steps.

Then, if you're in SAfe Mode with networking, I would attempt the prev suggestions to download a bootable install of Windows 10 on DVD or usb which will reinstall 10 from scratch. There's a good forum tutorial here - Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup or another, simpler, step by step here - Where to Download Windows 10, 8.1, and 7 ISOs Legally

I did do the HP SMART check, SMART passed, but, short DST failed. And it wasn't the reset option that got to 100%, it was the backup. And being that the short DST failed, I'm not sure re-installing Windows will help me.

New question, if I were to put a flash drive in my computer and try my backup again, do you think it would work? I'm only asking because I'm not sure if I have the proper equipment to hook my HDD into another computer, to rescue my files.

I don't know if I will boot from a USB, because I don't have an empty one, so I'm trying to find a way to empty one to use it.