Error Loading Operating System

Good luck with the Apple.

Thanks Ed...Any ideas with the Error Loading msg?  Shouldn't it boot from the CD even if the hard drive may not be working?  Could they both be out of commission?  Is this a BIOS issue and, if so, how do you update BIOS without running an OS?  I see that your BIOS is A16..... 

When booting from the CD drive you have to look for a ON SCREEN prompt that says something like "Hot any key to boot from CD Drive". If you don't hit a key when you see that prompt it goes to the HDD to load the OS. If there's no OS on the HDD you get a error.

I might be totally hosed, b/c I changed the order of booting (from HD to CD/DVD and vice versa) and it doesn't get past the message.  I don't get the prompt asking to boot from the drive.  I know I have the original XP install disk in the machine and I hear it spinning up, but then it pauses and stops and I get the Error msg. 

Is there some way to force it to startup from the disk?  Also, I'm assuming that the MS XP Pro disk is good enough to startup from.  Or was there some special startup disk I have that I didn't use??

Try hitting the F12 function key when you see the Dell BIOS splash screen. That will bring up a one time boot menu where you can select to boot from the CD drive, again you will need to look for the on screen prompt after you select CD drive from the one time boot menu. If for some reason the F12 key does not bring up the one time boot menu you are left with one option. Remove the HDD and connect the floppy drive to the notebook with a bootable floppy disk in the drive and with the newest BIOS flash on that same floppy. Once the HDD is out of the system it will boot from the floppy drive, if there is a floppy drive attached, NO matter what the BIOS is set to.

Okay, now it's getting odd. I finally got it to boot from the CD and I could get past the error. Using the CD though, I held off on a complete reinstall b/c I had some data on the drive I still wanted to get at. (It's not my primary computer so life could go on w/out the data; I still felt like I should try to get back to it.)

So I ran Recovery Console and using the C prompt I saw that the hard drive was unrecognizable. Then a funny thing happened. I was running CHKDSK and I took the power adapter out, thinking it would run on the battery. That killed the entire operation and the machine shut down. But when I restarted, with the Windows CD still in, it actually, very slowly crept back to the sign-in screen and I was back to my original settings and data, etc. I could even eject the CD and it still ran ok, although slow. I backed up some data, though not all, then restarted. Half of me said if I could get a login screen before, I could get one again...the other half saying, don't restart, back everything up and wipe the drive clean.

Now I'm getting nothing but errors; I've gotten a blue screen w/the "unmountable_boot_volume" error, I've gotten to the screen offering to start in Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/networking, etc. I've tried restarting w/Safe Mode, Last Known Config, etc. I've gotten to the initial Windows XP startup screen...I've tried to boot from the CD and I get a disk read error. But I can't get back to actually logging in.

One other odd thing I think I mentioned: the battery light below the laptop screen, bottom right, is blinking sometimes amber, sometimes green, erratically.

Crisis averted:

I was able to use Recovery Console to run CHKDSK and it seemed to have repaired enough to get me back to login and now I'm backing it up, wiping it clean and starting back fresh. Not sure what did it though. Was pretty up to date on definitions, software, etc...hadn't gotten in service pack 2...oh well. thanks for listening!