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Holmes55

14 Posts

19781

September 1st, 2007 00:00

Diskette Drive 0 seek failure for E521

Please can anyone help me - Am new to this, and my Dell is driving me batty!  I receive the above message, have pressed F2 and gone into the set up system.  I can only find that the diskette drives are 0 , 1, which are 160 gb memory. 2, and 3 are dvd burner and player.  I have tried to disable the floppy.  When I re-boot, it asks to choose safe mode, which I tried all options, it starts to boot, then Blue Screens with the message Unmountable boot volume - I am nearly bald!  Can anyone please suggest something that doesnt involve turning my Dell into a plant holder!  Many Many thanks.

PETER345

5.8K Posts

September 1st, 2007 00:00

You seem to be a little confused. Drives 0 and 1 are the HDs (hard drives). The diskette drive is the floppy drive.

Are you sure about what you are saying? Is the failure the diskette (floppy) drive? Did you actually disable the floppy or the HD? Disabling the floppy should not affect the ability to boot (presuming you are trying to boot from the HD).

Do you have a floppy drive in your system?

Did you run the diagnostics? They will be a good place to start with problems like this.

Peter

PETER345

5.8K Posts

September 1st, 2007 01:00

So you have two errors:

1. Floppy drive see failure
2. Unmountable boot volume error

If the floppy is disabled, I don't see why you would get the first. Did you get this error in Windows or at boot?

As for 2, I did a Google search and found many, including this:

From Microsoft.

You could also try reloading the defaults in the BIOS setup with:

Maintenance/Load Defaults: Restores system setup options to their factory defaults.

What did you download? When did it last work and what changed since then?

Peter

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 1st, 2007 01:00

Dear Peter345,
 
Thank you for your help - No I do not have a floppy drive in my system, I ran the diagnostics, and they both passed - I entered the start system setup, and went to the drives section - pressed enter, and diskette drives was displayed.  Off, USB, Internal and read only are the options, I have tried the Off option, and then followed the instructions for diskette interface - That I downloaded from the Dell site, but when I try this, I still get a blue screen, with unmountable boot volume error. 
 
I have put everything back the way I found it, but am still fighting with it.
 
Thank you
 
Holmes

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 1st, 2007 02:00

Dear Peter
 
I have tried to reload the factory settings but with no luck, I must be doing something wrong - I thought it would be a simple case of by passing the floppy boot, and then getting into safe mode to try and see what had caused it - Yes, I did put new software on, it was BT broadband - which worked perfectly for about 5 days, then there was all these problems.  I cannot even get into safe mode - am using my laptop to try and get help!  Hope that this doesn't go down, or I won't be able to do anything!
 
I appreciate your help.
 
Holmes 

PETER345

5.8K Posts

September 1st, 2007 04:00

The unmountable boot volume is the big problem. It sounds like your HD has something wrong. Possibly file corruption or a hardware issue.

Did you run the HD diagnostics?

You could also try running some diagnostics (Windows level) from the recovery console (boot with the Windows XP disc).

Peter

PETER345

5.8K Posts

September 1st, 2007 16:00

The Win XP disc should work on any Dell. You will need to download the correct drivers for your machine, though.

Peter

PETER345

5.8K Posts

September 1st, 2007 16:00

You download the drivers, then run the executable. Some will install automatically and some just extract into a directory for you to install manually. It it doesn't obviously install, you should do it manually.

Peter

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 1st, 2007 16:00

Hello Peter
 
Sorry about that I think I spoke too soon with my laptop, but just a simple prob to fix -I wish my Dell was!  Thank you for the reply - I hope that the HD is not broken - I would be gutted - I didn't get any disks with it at all.   I am running the Dell diagnostics and so far have found that its failed on one of the read tests, I have sent an e-mail to Dell asking for help, they have sent me some tests to do, which I did last night, so I have to wait for them replying to me now - or mayby someone has a magic wand?
Again many thanks Peter for all your help, I will perservere with it, although I must admit, I am now stuck as to what to try next.  May I ask - Does all the disks that come with Dells run on all Dells?  The reason I ask is that I have an old Dell Desktop Dimension 2350, about 5 years old that I received disks for, and wondered if I could run the recovery disk with my new one?  I think I am clutching at straws now.
 
Many Thanks
 
Holmes

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 1st, 2007 16:00

Dear Peter,
 
Many thanks again - I will try booting from the cd - at least if I can get it up and running I can sort out any problems.  I think that the Broadband may be the software that is conflicting with the built in modem.  But until I can get into the system I cannot do anything.  Do I just download the drivers from the Dell drivers site - will they install automatically, with the wizard, or will I have to manually instal them? 
I will try the disk and let you know how I get on - Many, Many, thanks.
 
Holmes

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 1st, 2007 18:00

Hello Peter,
Just to let you know - I think you could be right - I tried to run scandisk from my old Dimensions repair disk and I got "Physical damage on drive A that cannot be corrected"  "Scandisk cannot repair damaged cluster 2 because other damage to Drive A prevents it".  It also said that the hard drive could be ready to fail!  I cannot believe it - I think that I am still within my 12 month warranty, but I have had a few computers, and have never had this happen before - so I think that I have already lost all my files? I cannot even get into safe mode to save them?
 
Anyway thankss for all your help - much appreciated.
 
Holmes

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 1st, 2007 19:00

Hello Peter,
 
                   Just letting you know, windows XP has installed, I have lost all my files, pictures of my grandson, work etc. So i will put it down to experience!
I know have to install all the hardware and work on the BT Broadband software.
 
so THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!
 
 
TAKE CARE,
 
Holmes.  

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 1st, 2007 19:00

Hello Peter,
 
I am at present re-installing Windows XP on my Dell, I have no idea what will happen next - I will keep you informed, I will either cheer or cry - Thank you for your patience and time.
Holmes

PETER345

5.8K Posts

September 1st, 2007 19:00

Do you have another machine? If so, you can try reading the HD in that machine to get your data. There are also other ways (e.g. boot to live Linux and read the files) to access the files, but that might be too complex for you.

If under warranty, provide Dell with the error code and they should deal with it right away. However, you will need to get your data off before they ship you a new HD.

Peter

jx2lord

1 Message

September 3rd, 2007 17:00

I apologize for hijacking this post, but when did your problem start?  I just started having the exact same problem with my Dimension 8400 on September 1st.  Judging by the date of your post did you begin having the problem on the same date?
 
I get the same error, but I am able to press F1 and continue start-up.  The computer seems to operate smoothly other then the error message at boot-up.
 
I'm just wondering if this is a coincidence...

Holmes55

14 Posts

September 3rd, 2007 18:00

Hello
 
My computer started playing up about 9.00 p.m. on the 31st, and it did go from bad to worse - I ended up phoning the Dell techs and they walked me through it - it seemed to be a card that was playing up -Then, after I installed software it just gave up.  Now, thanks to them, I think its fixed, but I am not going to say it too loud, in case it hears me - But the people on this site really gave me some great tips to try, and they supported me along the way, when I was ready to turn it into a plant pot!  So thank you.
 
Cheers
 
Holmes

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