[Lisie]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with Windows XP SP3, and it's having some kind of startup error. When I try to turn it on, the Dell loading screen comes up, then it tells me that it can't find secondary drives 0 or 1, but it's been doing this for a very long time and it still worked fine. When I choose continue, it gives me the "We apologize for the inconvenience blah blah Windows did not start successfully" and offers me the usual options. I've tried last known good configuration, safe mode, and normal, but the same thing happens. I get the Windows XP loading screen, then a blue screen pops up for half a second (I can't even read what it says) and the computer restarts. Also, occasionally when I press F12 at startup, I get that hilarious error "Keyboard Failure, press F1 to contunue". Not so hilarious when it happens to you, actually.
I haven't installed any new hardware or any software besides the usual Windows upgrades. The computer's been slow for a very long time because the RAM upgrade is way expensive and I've been mostly using it as extra storage, but it didn't seem like it was going downhill. What can I do?

 

[Lisie]

Just tried booting from the drivers and utilities disc per tech support's advice, but all I get is I/O error reading device EXTCD001, abort, retry, fail? even though the disc is perfectly clean and intact.

 

[Lisie]

Just booted from the Windows disc and ran the recovery console. It stopped at 9% and says "This volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."

 

[Old Rich]

You should have a cd that came with the Dell that has diagnostics . . run that to rule out drive failure.

If you do not have the diagnostic cd, you can download from the Dell support site

 

[keezel]

If you get desperate and want to fix it yourself (much cheaper), there are boot discs out there that will allow you to run memtest (test your memory) and various hard drive tests. Some of them even include PC Check, which checks a wide variety of components in your computer. Please be advised that most such discs are illegal. Popular discs include ultimate boot CD (UBCD) and Hiren's boot CD (HBCD). The Geeksquad MRI is pretty nice too but that one is the most likely of all to get you into hot water. ;-)

 

[Lisie]

I ran the Hitachi drive fitness test and got Disposition Code 0x70, problem detected.

 

[keezel]

DFT is kindof a "pass/fail" thing. It's my favorite hard drive testing utility but it's not great with details. If it failed, it's a safe bet your HDD is screwed.

In your case I'd either hook the drive up as a slave, hook it up as an external with one of those kits or enclosures, or use a Live CD which operates from the RAM to access and back up your files. I personally prefer to use Knoppix and then just transfer the files to an external drive.

 

[Old Rich]

Did you try the Dell diagnostics?