DellCA

kopander, I agree with Terrister that it sounds like a problem with the hard drive. If chkdsk /r doesn't find and fix the problem you may end up having to replace it.

The Dell Diagnostics includes a test of the hard drive which will work with any hard drive we send out. If your system includes the onboard diags (accessable via the F12 boot menu when you first power on) you can run them from there. If you don't have that option, or if the diags partition has been removed from the hard drive, you can also run them by booting from the Dell Inspiron Resource CD or by downloading them from the Dell support website (http://support.dell.com). If you have any problems finding it on our downloads site, let me know and I can send you the link directly to it.

If you are out of warranty (probable, considering the age of the computer) you can get instructions on getting the hard drive out of the computer and the plastic carrier it is mounted in from the service manual (http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/en/index.htm).

We use a number of brands for hard drives in Dell computers, so I can't easily tell which specific one is in your computer. That particular notebook uses a standard 2.5" IDE hard drive with an interposer board (adapter) that converts the mini-IDE connection to what the hard drive bay uses to connect the drive to the motherboard. If you do purchase an replacement drive make sure to move the interposer board over or the drive won't work.

If you have any questions about the info here, or other questions about the problem or what drive to use in your 2650, I will be more than happy to answer them for you. Having just lost a drive on my computer at home, I know what a pain this kind of thing can be (luckily, I didn't lose anything important, but it was close ... always make backups of important files!).

Larry