It just happened that this time around it showed the options to boot from CD and DVD. Not sure how that happens (beginning to think this HP is playing devil with me). Same thing when I mentioned SATA, and just right after it showed me that screen with IDE. But, considering the fact you have not saw my handsome face personally, I understand we have a trust issue here. I will just have to live with that.
No worries. Sometimes the computers behave erratically, sometimes it's us. Either way, reloading the default values in BIOS may help to correct any errors that have crept in over time. And then a careful review of the BIOS settings to try to understand them and be sure they are providing the proper values that you desire, or that your system requires. Ask if you have any questions about any BIOS settings and we can probably help.
If you aren't too familiar with Gparted, here are a couple of hints. You need to click on the partition you want to work with so it is highlighted, then go to the Partition menu at the top and usually "unmount" the partition before you can work on it. This is true with swap too, but it uses a different term. When all the changes have been selected, you have to"apply changes" with the checkmark icon up near the top, below the menu options. Your changes will not be kept if you skip this step.
So, to erase your entire hard drive with Gparted, it should go something like this:
1. Click on swap partition to highlight. Click on Partition menu, and select SWAPOFF. Then click on swap partition again, click on the Partition menu again, and choose Delete this time.
2. Click on the extended partition to highlight next. It may or may not be mounted. Click on the Partition menu and unmount if that option is available (do not choose mount if that is the option). With the extended partition unmounted, then again use the Partition menu to Delete.
3. Click on the /dev/sda1 partition to highlight it now. Click on the Partition menu, as before, and choose unmount if it is available (but don't choose mount). With this partition unmounted, you can finally click the Partition menu and Delete. That should now show the entire drive as unallocated space.
4. Click the checkmark icon near the top, on the right end of the line of icons to apply all of the changes made above.
5. Boot your Lubuntu DVD and do a full installation (use "entire disk"). It will set the proper swap space again and format the partitions automatically. I think Wizard and I both would recommend that you do not choose any encryption or LVM... you should see options for these during the install but they are not very good options for beginners.
Hope all goes well and gets back to normal soon. Let us know if we seem to have missed anything or if other questions come up.
Cheers