NO need to do a reinstall reformat DELL would have you believe you newed a nuckear bomb where a flyswatter is only necessary

run the chkdsk/f utility preferably from a copy of WINPE disc or some other suchutility disc

USUALLY that area of the drive needs a REPAIR. I have done it but forget exactly WHAT I did.

This is one of the FEW areas that I prefer VISTA; it automates a repair for you and usually does a good job!

good luck

kc

IF you get a new drive (if U insist) the dell supplied discs will alow you to reinstall as oif it were new

Thing is all old favorites etc are ALL gone

You can retrieve them by strapping on the old drive when u get the new one up and running

If it is XP then under Documents and Settings are your old esktop icons etc...

good luck

kc

Depaul,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Have you tried formatting and reinstalling windows? If not, you may want to go ahead and reinstall. The error is a Windows error and is not a hard drive problem. When you do decide to put a new hard drive in the computer you will be able to reinstall Windows with no problems.

If you have XP SP2 on the hard drive and have your Dell XP SP2 Reinstallation CD, you can just do a repair/reinstall of XP on your existing hard drive. All personal files will be ok, but you will have to reinstall all SP2 updates and hotfixes (ie, update to SP3).

 

If the drive has already been updated to SP3, you can create a bootable "slip-streamed" CD with XP SP2 from your Dell CD and SP3 downloaded free from Microsoft. And then use the slip-streamed CD to run the repair/reinstall.  Here's a good "how-to" for slip-streaming XP with SP3.

 

Ron

That may not work if the CD has SP2 but the hard drive has SP3...

Ron

Thankyou for all the replies so far....

 

The problem is I cannot get into any place where entering a command is possible, including safe mode, etc.

I would love to wipe the drive and start over as all existing important items on the drive were backed up

( ALWAYS BACK UP!!!!!) prior to the failure.

 

At this moment, none of the drives, including the boots, are "not recognized.

 

I will continue to try all options including the ones suggested in this thread.

I consider this a challange as i think i am "good" with computers, but not great...lol

 

Once again...Thank you all.

If everything is backed up, then use PC Restore to reset the hard drive to 'factory condition".  All personal files and any software you installed will be lost, so be sure you've got everything you need on external media.

Availability of PC Restore assumes that your system was shipped after July 14, 2004 and you haven't previously reformatted or replaced the original hard drive.  Reboot and press/hold Ctrl key as soon as you see the narrow blue band across the top of the screen. While holding Ctrl, quickly press F11 and release both at the same time. Follow the prompts.

 

As soon as PC Restore is done, get antiviral software and firewall running. Then go directly to the MS update site and download ALL hotfixes for Windows (eg, SP3), Internet Explorer, Office, etc, etc.

 

While you're logged in, you can edit any of your posts by clicking the [Edit] link in the gray bar at the bottom of that post.  I don't think anyone is happy with this new version of the forum.

 

Ron

What color are the 4 diagnostic LEDs on rear of tower when it won't boot? If not all green, look up error codes here. Power off and disconnect PC from the wall. Press/hold power button for ~15 sec. Open the case and remove the battery from the motherboard. Press/hold the power button again for ~30 sec. Reinstall the battery -right side up! See if it boots now. And if the battery is more than ~2-3 yrs old replace it with a new 3-Volt CR2032 lithium coin cell (~$2-$3 at Walmart, Target, etc). 4th attempt to post... :emotion-6: Ron

Thankyou Ron....

 

I cant get any of the above to work....( PC Restore)( key combo) only keys taht are available to me are F2 and F12  and F1 which results in a reboot.................

Splash screen loads, F12 is able to run diagnostics which is telling me all my drives are working with no errors listed in the results section.

The PATA drives are listed and jumpered correctly

I tried booting from the ( Boot Sequence) usb drives listed first..no avail

switched to SATA hared drive listed first, also no avail.

 

I wish there was a utility ( free of course) available that I could download, copy and slip into the 3.5 drive to boot this thing...lol

 

And I thought i had already edited my comment about the forum display...rotf.....

 

I will probably get the hang of it after the next 6 or 700 posts.....

Sorry for the run on paragraph. The forum refused to accept the paragraph breaks and won't let me edit it.

And here are the links it won't accept:

Error codes:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/SM/adtshoot.htm#wp1052387

 

Remove battery:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/SM/parts.htm#wp1058524

 

COME ON DELL, FIX THIS STUPID SOFTWARE, NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Ro