XPS M1530 won't boot! Help!

Question

Hi all. I have a refubished M1530 that I've been using for about a year now. Lately, whenever I would re-open my laptop after closing it it would not start, which forced me to turn it off manually. Last night, I remember shutting if down properly and everything was fine. However, this morning, when turning it on, it loads up to a "Windows Error Recovery" page and gave me the option to "Launch Startup Repair" or "Start Windows Normally". When I click the recovery, it would load the intro screen for a few seconds then bring me back to the error recover page to choose again. When I click to start it normally, It would seem like it is about to boot (with the hard drive sound running and the webcam flashing), but then it would just stay a black screen.

I've ran the diagnostic and got the "dell error code 0142". I looked it up and it looks like my hard drive has failed. However, from what i've read it is still possible that it is due to a non physical problem and I can save my data myself. How can I know for sure?

I've also tried pressing f8 in the intro to do the windows repair with no sucess, as well as running safe mode.

I also don't have a vista boot CD.

What can I do to save my stuff and get it running again?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

ejn63 · Answer

The VERY FIRST thing to do:

REMOVE the hard drive, mount it in a 2.5" USB 2.0 drive enclosure (newegg.com has dozens of these) and attach it to a working system by USB. Make a copy of the data you can still read.

Then replace the drive with a new one. You need a 2.5" 9.5 mm SATA drive.

If you don't have a WIndows CD and are in the US, you can order one from the link below. Outside the US, contact your local Dell office.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&l=en&s=gen&redirect=1

ekwok117 · Answer

Thanks a bunch! I just went out and got the enclosure and a new HDD. I plugged my old HDD into the desktop, but it keeps connecting and disconnecting. The 'Autoplay' window keeps coming up and it looks like it is searching through things. I was able to pull a few files out, but because it keeps disconnecting, I can not do too much. Any suggestion for this?

ejn63 · Answer

Try a different USB port -- if that doesn't work, and you're sure the connection is solid, it sounds like the drive is well on its way to failure and you may have no choice but to either write off the data, or contact a data recovery service (Drive Savers, Ontrack, etc. -- they work miracles but brace yourself for a $2,000+ bill if you need that option).

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XPS M1530 won't boot! Help!

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