Strange hard drive problem at boot

Question

When I turn on the system after resting it for a few hours. By resting I mean not turned on I get a msg saying 'Primary hard disk drive 0 failure No boot device available - No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility' First glance this might look like a hard drive problem, which is why I'm posting here, but if I leave it on for 5-10 min.. sort of let it warm up, then hard boot (turn power off and back on) the laptop starts up just fine. I've also run a full diagnostic disk from dell without it detecting anything. I don't experience random crashes and I've had no corrupt files or any significant software errors. The laptop is an Inspiron 4150. Does anyone know what this is? And how/where should I contact Dell to get this fixed as quickly as possible? (I have a valid CAR agreement)

Ed C · Answer

It's the HDD. It's on it's way to never never land. Back up all your files/data and replace it as soon as possible.

johnallg · Answer

I concur - the bearings in the drive need to heat up to let the platter(s) spin.  1st backup, 2nd budget, 3rd is order.

JOE_B. · Answer

I've had a similar problem with an inpsiron 8000. I get the "Primary hard disk drive 0 failure" message about one out of four startups. The problem seems to dissapear when I start the drive in the media bay. I've had the same problem with another drive in the main HDD bay, so I don't know the reason I'm getting the message.

Joe B

johnallg · Answer

Reseat the hdd into the notebook hdd bay.

Storage, Drives & Media

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