Hard drive gone?

[M1TCH]

I got a Dell Inspiron 9300 which I think is 3.5 yr old now so done me well..

anyway it goes into windows xp boot screen then flashes blue and restarts over and over. I've taken the HD out and plug it in a IDE - USB but it's not reading properly, just flashing on the IDE end and not bringing up a drive on my laptop.

So is this a good indication that the HD is busted?

Just hope theres nothing on there I really need.

Mitch

 

[KDF]

F8. safe mode. chkdsk.

 

[M1TCH]

wouldnt boot in safe mode. just put HDD back in and it says 'Internal HDD HARD error!'

 

[Alfonz]

If i leave a memory stick in when i start up it does this. I just remove it and its fine, i think its to stop viruses.

 

[Greeny.]

Didnt really sound like a hard disk fault at the start but sure does now. Can you see the HDD in the bios? If not then get a replacement.

 

[M1TCH]

lol oops that was me forgetting to put the IDE connector back on. any it doesnt run safe mode so i cant do the chkdsk. think i'll just order me a new one and reinstall.

 

[Greeny.]

Do you have ERD Commander? You can book into a virtual OS to run various checks on your HDD?

 

[M1TCH]

on the DL now, cheers I'll give that a go.

 

[M1TCH]

I've burnt it as bootable but it wont boot from it, just goes back into the restarting it was doing before.

 

[jay s]

do a dell diagnostic check , can't remember if it checks the hd tho but worth a try. to get it in diagnostics mode you need to hold the FN key and turn the laptop on ( the fn key is next to the left ctrl button )

 

[Greeny.]

I've burnt it as bootable but it wont boot from it, just goes back into the restarting it was doing before.

Strange... as it just boots from the CD, doesnt touch the HDD at all as you can boot from it without a HDD plugged in.

do a dell diagnostic check , can't remember if it checks the hd tho but worth a try. to get it in diagnostics mode you need to hold the FN key and turn the laptop on ( the fn key is next to the left ctrl button )

It does.