The most common cause is a failed hard drive. Power on, press F12, load the Dell diagnostics and run the extended (NOT just the quick) test on the hard drive.
ok, I did it turned on the computer and f12 went through the process and still the same thing happened. does this mean that my hard drive is gone and i will be buying a new hard drive? but if i have to buy a new hard drive then how will i get the old information off my old hard drive and when i install the hard drive on my laptop will it just start working just like new? dell does not send you a windows install disc when you buy a computer from them they say its on the hard drive..or is it?
At least the boot record on the drive is damaged. BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, remove the drive, mount it in a 2.5" USB case, and attach it to a working system. See if you can read any of your data. If you can, then either troubleshoot further or reload.
If you cannot, you'll have to decide whether your data is worth a data recovery service's fee (often well into the four-digits, pricewise) to retrieve.
Basically the error message means that your Dell is having trouble reading the boot information from one of the several partitions on your drive.
Now maybe it got corrupted bacause the drive is failing, in which case any fix may be temporary
Maybe it got corrupted for some wierd one off reason.
Maybe it's some bios or software issue, or a power failure happened or something
Or maybe it is a very common that lots of people seem to have judjing by quick google :-)
I Cant tell from here so anything you try come with no guarantees AT ALL
If you are happy pulling the drive out I agree it is easier to troubleshoot a drive that does not have to boot windows. It is possible you can read the drive in another system and copy your data off.
It is true that you MAY have to wipe the disk, lose your data and restore . .which lots of people love telling you :-)
It is also true that some people have 'shocked the system out of this problem ' by removing USB devices or drives . . or inserting a USB device or memory stick during the bios stage before the error message. Others have successfully used Windows Repair or other disk checking/repair tools to solve it.
I recommend you have a look at this External thread
Advice there starts with the usual doom and gloom "Nuke your Drive all is lost theory" . . but as the threrad progresses a whole lot of less dramatic solutions get reported
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
September 17th, 2008 20:00
The most common cause is a failed hard drive. Power on, press F12, load the Dell diagnostics and run the extended (NOT just the quick) test on the hard drive.
achinnis
2 Posts
0
September 18th, 2008 19:00
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
September 18th, 2008 21:00
At least the boot record on the drive is damaged. BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, remove the drive, mount it in a 2.5" USB case, and attach it to a working system. See if you can read any of your data. If you can, then either troubleshoot further or reload.
If you cannot, you'll have to decide whether your data is worth a data recovery service's fee (often well into the four-digits, pricewise) to retrieve.
You can order a Dell CD
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1
BruceVi
75 Posts
0
September 19th, 2008 16:00
Things Might not be as bad as they say.
Basically the error message means that your Dell is having trouble reading the boot information from one of the several partitions on your drive.
Now maybe it got corrupted bacause the drive is failing, in which case any fix may be temporary
Maybe it got corrupted for some wierd one off reason.
Maybe it's some bios or software issue, or a power failure happened or something
Or maybe it is a very common that lots of people seem to have judjing by quick google :-)
I Cant tell from here so anything you try come with no guarantees AT ALL
If you are happy pulling the drive out I agree it is easier to troubleshoot a drive that does not have to boot windows. It is possible you can read the drive in another system and copy your data off.
It is true that you MAY have to wipe the disk, lose your data and restore . .which lots of people love telling you :-)
It is also true that some people have 'shocked the system out of this problem ' by removing USB devices or drives . . or inserting a USB device or memory stick during the bios stage before the error message. Others have successfully used Windows Repair or other disk checking/repair tools to solve it.
I recommend you have a look at this External thread
http://www.supportmycomputer.com/question.php?question_id=2401
Advice there starts with the usual doom and gloom "Nuke your Drive all is lost theory" . . but as the threrad progresses a whole lot of less dramatic solutions get reported
Good Luck !