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Hard Drive Failure,
Dell XPS 935 Vista
main drive failed, contains OS and primary storage, is partitioned primary and recovery
second drive is secondary storage and is also partioned primary and recovery
third drive is backup to main drive and is similarly partioned.
Start up continues to fail, I ran startup repair and nothing, I have accessed the diagnostic panel and recieve a slew of error codes
0F00:0132, 1232, 0232, 0432, 0732, OD32, OE32,
I am guessing the drive has failed? and I need to intall windows on the Third drive then replace the primary drive?
Or can I replace the primary drive install windows and then copy the data from the backup drive onto the primary?
Can I Use the recovery partition from the main drive to operate windows? If not then what is the recovery partition good for?
Any Helpful advice would be appreciated!
[ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy]
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
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44.4K Posts
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December 31st, 2012 12:00
Please remove your Service Tag. It's a violation of the forums terms of use to post personal info.
Could be either a failed hard drive, failed SATA cable, or even a failed motherboard. Try reseating the SATA cable to the main hard drive at both the motherboard and drive. You could also swap the SATA cable from one of your backup drives to see if the main drive's SATA cable failed. Always power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec before working inside the case.
If you format and install Windows on any of the other drives, you'll lose whatever data is there. If you decide that the main drive failed, get a replacement drive, format it and install the OS, Microsoft updates, and your software. Then you can copy the data files from one of your backup drives onto it. Glad you have backups!!
The Recovery partition only works if you want to return the hard drive to the "factory state", eg, exactly how Dell shipped it with Windows and any software they provided. All personal data and software you installed will be deleted from the drive by running the Recovery.
piginapoke
3 Posts
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January 1st, 2013 06:00
Thanks, I will give those suggestions a try this morning.
The confussing thing for me is that I thought if the drive failed it would stop functioning completly, but portions of the drive test fine. It will begin to start windows and then hangs at the initalizing stage.
piginapoke
3 Posts
0
January 30th, 2013 10:00
I was able to get everything up and running again but had to reinstall vista...
Now the drive has ceased to function at all. Tested HDD and get numerous errors, as it will not function to test.
I purchased a new HDD and an upgrade disk to Win8. However my new disk does not have windows installed and therefore I am unable to install the upgrade. I partitioned and formated the disk on another computer and attempted to use my Dell supplied Vista reinstallation disk to no avail. Ths disk is only able to reinstall windows not actually install it. Where can I get an install disk? Win8 builders disk are unavailable, and I surely do not plan to buy another version of Windows just to upgrade to 8. Are any of you aware of a possible solution????
RoHe
10 Elder
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44.4K Posts
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January 30th, 2013 11:00
You can only install Windows with the Dell Vista ReInstallation DVD on a Dell PC. You can't install Windows with that DVD if the hard dirve is in some other brand PC.
Put the new hard drive in the 935, boot from the Dell Vista DVD, format the drive and run the install. Read and follow this detailed Wiki to install Vista on the new drive and then follow the instructions to upgrade to Win 8.