Welcome to the forum, douglejg. :smileyhappy: This question may be better asked in the XP forum under Software but I'll take a shot at it. The first thing I would do is take everything back to what you had originally: the hard drive, optical drives, cables, etc. The other hard drive won't work because it's already set up for a different system. The key is designated for the Dell Diagnostics. Have you tried to boot in safe mode using the key? If so, what were the results?
One thing that I would consider doing, if you have files that you want to save on that hard drive and you have another computer, is to put that drive in the other system as a slave drive and copy the data files (pictures, e-mail, music, Office type files, etc.) to the other system. Then I would move the virus affected drive back to it's original computer, change it back to master settings and attempt to run the Dell PC Restore by Symantec. Doing this will wipe out everything on the hard drive and reinstall everything back to the way that it was when it was shipped from Dell. If you still have your owner's manual, you should find information on the Dell PC Restore on pages 57 - 58 or if you can get access on another system then you can look at the owner's manual here.
Another option that I would consider is to replace the virus affected drive with a brand new drive and use the software that you have from Dell to reinstall everything. Then you could set the affected drive as a slave drive and move the data files to the new drive at your leisure. This would probably be my first choice because you can take your time about moving the files but it depends on whether you want to invest in a new drive.
No problem, douglejg. I thought I'd give you some less expensive alternatives to having it serviced. I just took a look at some of the prices for computer repair by some of the "big name" stores and getting a new drive (external or internal) would be a much cheaper option. Of course you may be able to find someone in your area that can repair it at a better rate. Please let us know how it goes or if you have any other questions.
douglejg
3 Posts
0
October 8th, 2008 22:00
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So confused.... is the problem in the BIOS?.... it wont even boot off a HD that works....
williamkidd
387 Posts
0
October 10th, 2008 23:00
Welcome to the forum, douglejg. :smileyhappy: This question may be better asked in the XP forum under Software but I'll take a shot at it. The first thing I would do is take everything back to what you had originally: the hard drive, optical drives, cables, etc. The other hard drive won't work because it's already set up for a different system. The key is designated for the Dell Diagnostics. Have you tried to boot in safe mode using the key? If so, what were the results?
One thing that I would consider doing, if you have files that you want to save on that hard drive and you have another computer, is to put that drive in the other system as a slave drive and copy the data files (pictures, e-mail, music, Office type files, etc.) to the other system. Then I would move the virus affected drive back to it's original computer, change it back to master settings and attempt to run the Dell PC Restore by Symantec. Doing this will wipe out everything on the hard drive and reinstall everything back to the way that it was when it was shipped from Dell. If you still have your owner's manual, you should find information on the Dell PC Restore on pages 57 - 58 or if you can get access on another system then you can look at the owner's manual here.
Another option that I would consider is to replace the virus affected drive with a brand new drive and use the software that you have from Dell to reinstall everything. Then you could set the affected drive as a slave drive and move the data files to the new drive at your leisure. This would probably be my first choice because you can take your time about moving the files but it depends on whether you want to invest in a new drive.
Let us know if this helps.
douglejg
3 Posts
0
October 13th, 2008 21:00
williamkidd
387 Posts
0
October 13th, 2008 22:00