BOOT FAILED SYSTEM HALTED!!!!!!!!!!

It means you get to upgrade your hard drive! :)

 

Seriously, sorry to hear about that. What you'll need is an IDE, not SATA, hard drive. Any size will work. Then get your Windows XP, Dell resource and other discs together and get ready to reinstall the operating system.

Hi, berkleygirl:

That message means that your system has failed to boot. This could be a few different things, a failed hard drive, cable, or IDE controller, or it could be just a loose IDE cable. The first thing to do is open up the system and pull the flat cable going to the hard drive out, then push it back in firmly. Do the same thing at the other end.

Try rebooting. If you get the same message, then it's time to run the hard drive diagnostics. Reboot your computer. At the Dell blue logo screen, press the Ctrl + Alt + D keys at the same time (this can be VERY tricky to get the timing just right!!). The computer beeps once to acknowledge that the hard drive diagnostics have been initiated. Follow the on-screen instructions.

We'll go from there.

Hi again did all the above and its says that IDE failed what does this mean??

What happens to all the stuff thats on this computer? Can I retrieve it.  I have been transferring stuff from it onto my new Dell but had not quite finished!

Unfortunately the answer to that question is "maybe".  You have three options open to you.  You can mount it as a slave drive in a working computer that has the correct interface and try to read the drive, you can purchase an external drive shell with a USB 2.0 interface, or if the data is really important, you can send the drive to a professional data recovery company.  That last can be really expensive; I have heard prices beginning at $2,000.

 

Most likely the best approach is the external drive shell.  After purchasing the shell you will need to install the hard drive into it and connect its USB cable to a working computer.  If your old computer was running Windows XP you may need to take possession of the folder you are trying to transfer before you will be allowed to copy it.  In Windows XP Home you must do this in Safe Mode.  Once this is done you simply copy the files from the drive to your working computer assuming the drive is not so far gone as to make it impossible.

 

Should I get someone who knows how to do this or should I be able to do this myself? The stuff is pretty important - tax man will think I have done this on purpose - invoices wages etc!!

It's a tough lesson to learn that when data is that important, you need to back it up. :(

Installing the new drive, operating system, etc. is pretty easy. Getting data off that drive is going to be hit or miss. One thing is sure. You'll find out what your data is really worth.