Webskater

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop. Last night, after my son had been using it, I went to shut it down. When I opened the lid, the screen was black with some writing on it that said something like 'no bootable devices found'.

The DVD drive was whirring so I opened it and found a CD of The Sims in there. The CD is pretty dirty and fairly old. I would imagine it's old enough to have run on XP or maybe earlier.

Now, if you try to start the laptop, (sometimes) it looks as though Windows is starting - you get to the screen to select a user to sign on - but, after this, the screen goes black and says the hard drive can't be found.

If I run diagnostics it says the DST Test failed. I have started in SafeMode with a Command prompt - and entered chkdsk - but, after a while, the screen went black again and gave me the 'cannot find bootable device' message.

Needless to say, the recovery CD cannot be located. What can I do? Thanks for any help.

A bit more - I read somewhere to run chkdsk /r ... so I have done this and the message says:

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process.

kev1952

If you enter the BIOS setup does the hard disk show?

usasma

If you've failed the Dell DST, it's likely that your hard drive is dead/dying. Is the computer still under warranty, or do you have an extended warranty? If so, this is likely to be a qualifying repair (free in other words).

This means that you're going to likely need a new hard drive, and a copy of the restore disks for the system. Hard drives run $100-$150 (US) at a store, but can be had for much cheaper online.

The restore disks can be ordered from Dell. I don't know how much (or they may even be free) - haven't ordered many for Dell's recently.

Webskater

Thanks for your reply.

If I enter the BIOS it says something like ...

Primary Hard Drive <none>

So I guess the drive cannot be seen. The thing is - is the drive screwed (and my data gone forever) or is some fixable problem?

Webskater

Thanks for your reply. The computer is under warranty and this afternoon I have arranged with Dell to collect it. I have a Recovery CD that came with the laptop. (When the computer was only a few weeks old, I had the dreaded blue screen and had to do use the Recovery CD - and then spend days trying to track down the various drivers)

What I am most concerned about is the data on there. Can I recover it?

kev1952

If it goes to Dell for repair they will most likely replace the drive. The warranty doesn't cover data and it may well be lost. If you can get Dell to return the dud drive you *may* be able to recover it but I would consider it lost. There are places that offer data recovery services (with no warranties) but it is a VERY expensive process - is the data worth possibly $1000's to you?

Learn from this one and make sure you backup your important data regularly to prevent this from happening again.

Webskater

What's annoying is that with Norton comes 2Gb of remote backup and a regular reminder to set it up! Machine is used by wife and kids - I don't let them near mine (they are lining up behind me as I type as this is the only machine that works okay - great isn't it - 5 computers in the house and the rest are just - well knackered - so slow.) Seems if computers don't actually break, they just progressively slow down until they are useless. A cunning stunt by the manufacturers.

kev1952

Don't be too hard on yourself. Most of us learn to backup by having the same thing happen - it really IS important!

There is one other possibility - if you can find out the name of the drive manufacturer (ask Dell??) you could download their diagnostic software (runs from a bootable floppy of CD) and test the drive. It may even be able to fix it and will generally work even if the drive is not recognised in the BIOS. Definitely worth a shot before you send it back to Dell (still do that but after testing).