Can't sign into my User - Opening as Temporary user!

Question

A few days ago I attempted to sign into my Dell Studio 15 - I had two user accounts - a Guest and my own area set to Admin. Straight away I noticed it was taking a long time to sign in and after a few minutes it had opened me onto a completely empty desktop, with all my files missing. At first I thought I had a virus of some sort and that my files had been wiped, but after hunting about and doing some digging realised that Vista had logged me onto a temporary user, and that all my files were hidden deep in the Windows/User section of my laptop.   After having a google to work out the problem, I created another Admin account and backed up all of my files onto an external drive - however, some of the hidden folders suggested to copy from my user area wouldn't copy over due to admin settings. I wasn't too worried about this as I was more worried about the actual data on my hard drive, which is now secure. My laptop doesn't have enough space remaining to copy all the files back on, so I was planning on deleting my old user, creating a new one and then copying everything back over (this would work, right?)   However, upon creating a new user area to store all my data, I realised that my system was running abnormally slow. Firefox literally skips to Not Responding every few minutes, won't let me update anything and my system is generally taking a good time longer to work. Every new webpage opened skips straight to non responding for a minute or two and I'm worried I have a virus/system issue of some sort. I've ran Malwarebytes to no avail, and am currently defragging the system to hopefully unclog it a little. I don't want to delete my original user yet/transfer all my files over for fear of my whole system dying. I've also never used the system restore function and am unsure how it would work in a scenario like this. Would it be that my hard drive itself has corrupted portions? Or just that a virus of some sort has wormed its way into my system?   Sorry if I seem fairly technology-illiterate, I'm not really too sure about what I'm doing. In a simple way, could any of you help and let me know what is best to do in this situation? I don't want my laptop to be out of action as I have no way of replacing it for a few months, and most of all I don't want to lose all of my files during transfer or in the near future from a complete system failure.

ejn63 · Answer

Start with an extended hard drive test - F12 at powerup, Dell diagnostics.

coupdetat · Answer

It's giving me the status

0142

2000-0142 Status:75

Which is take as being a corrupted portion of my hard disk? Despite this however, I can still log on to the other user areas I have created and create new users/transfer data. What would be the best course of action here? Obviously I expect I'll need a new hard drive asap, but can I transfer my data safely to these new user areas, and is there risk of further corruption in the future?

If I buy a new hard drive, is there any specific type I'd need for the Studio 15? and is there anyway I can request the Vista OS from dell to reload everything, as I was not given any software/drivers on CD with the laptop?

ejn63 · Answer

You'll need to call Dell.

ejn63 · Answer

You need a new 2.5', 9.5 mm or slimmer, SATA notebook drive.  To order the Vista DVD (in the US only): http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form

coupdetat · Answer

oh cool, I'll have a hunt for one. thanks!   I'm in the UK, I'm guessing they offer a similar service here right?

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