Message Edited by shesagordie on 11-22-2005 05:44 PM

Bev, thanks for your reply.

Dell Support told me that doing a clean install of the OS would clear up any problems related to that error. So last night I reformatted and reinstalled XP and all the drivers. I then did the Hard Drive Diagnostics again and still received the same error.

My computer appears to be working fine so far, but obviously I'm concerned about this, especially since my warranty runs out in a month. But Dell has tried to give me assurances that I'll have no further problems from the drive.

They also said that the Diagnostic program is meant for IDE drives whereas mine is SATA, and that if I run the 32-bit diagnostics from their website I won't get the error. I haven't tried that yet, but I certainly will.

Scott

Download and run PowerMax direct from Maxtor (www.maxtor.com). The drive is failing and needs to be replaced - if you keep using it -- keep backups, as you will soon be needing them.

I've had the same problem twice now on my Dimension 4700 bought last October. The first was replaced under warranty, the second (both Maxtor) failed last week, out of warranty. I decided to replace with a Western Digital drive on SATA-0 and installed Windows and all my stuff on this. I then went into the bios and activated SATA-2 and connected the faulty drive to that and it showed up in My Computer as drive E. I was then able to get any stuff I needed off this. (After the first failure I back up regularly anyway)

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@TeacherGuy wrote:
Hello
I have a Dimension 8400 that crashed rather catastrophically a few days ago. I was able to "repair" the installation using the XP cd and get back into Windows, but the system is still very unstable and unreliable.

I tried using the Dell PC Restore by hitting ctrl-f11 at the dell splash screen but it wouldn't start. I then hit f12 at the dell splash screen and went into the Hard Drive Diagnostics utility which gave me the following error:

Maxtor 7Y250M0 Fail - Return Code 7

So... is there any hope?

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Error code 7 means your hd has someithing wrong with bad sector , or u may say HD failure.

Phone at Dell and let them swop your hd with new 1.

yours,

I too have a 4700, which today has blue-screened for the 3rd time since we received the machine last December. The first maxtor hard disk lasted a month, the second is still going, but on it's knees... two months ago I managed to recover by copying some backup files over the damaged systems files, but it has never been the same since, some applications had just disappeared. Today has been more catastrophic, 3 hours of check-disking has brought it back into life, but this maxtor is destined for the Dell Graveyard. Still under warranty, but the reliablity of this system (or should I say hard disk) is a joke - I'd prefer Dell to replace with a non-maxtor drive but somehow I doubt that will happen. Do Dell only use Maxtor?

Try not to use Maxtor . not so stable.

and Dont use Dim 4700 . really. new or 2nd.

my comment. 4700 has lot of problem.

yours,

Lord chop  we also bought our demension 3000 last Dec and the hard drive went with a code of 7 just this week,  I should have stuck with HP !!! Everyone says how great Dell's are, I've got a 4 year old HP running at 333mgz that works better then the dell I wasted my hard earned $ on.  Just wanted to vent my dissatisfaction with the Dell. Another thing I don't like is talking to foreigners that you can't understand, the guy I talked to the other day asked me how I was doing and I was honest with him, by telling him not so good since my Dell crashed. I was nice about it, but it was hard to be nice.  I'm now waiting for a service tech to call and come put a new drive in this 30 pound door stop thats just taking up space right now,  I'm thankful I keep the old HP, it's not the fastest box in the world, but its been faithful to me.