Dell forum: dell dimension 3100c wont boot

Answer Best answer as chosen by user janruss1

That doesn't sound good.

by Kees_B - 6/3/12 11:43 AM

In Reply to: dell dimension 3100c wont boot by janruss1

What happens if you take that XP disk out and boot from the hard disk as you usually do?

And, just to make the issue more clear: when did that blue screen appear a few days ago? One time or reproducible? And what was the error number and description on that blue screen?

Kees

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cant read hard drive

by janruss1 - 6/3/12 1:47 PM

In Reply to: That doesn't sound good. by Kees_B

the computer doesnt now show the blue screen but I have managed to get further by trial and error. It is now saying that it cant read the hard drive. If this is a hard drive failure is it likely to be possible to merely take one hard drive out and replace it with a new one (assuming it is worth it) and it will work again or is it likely to be more complicated?

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Re: hard drive failure

by Kees_B - 6/3/12 1:59 PM

In Reply to: cant read hard drive by janruss1

Steps:
1. Replace the drive.
2. Install Windows.
3. Install all drivers.
3. Visit Windows update a few times (once is not enough).
5. Install all programs
6. Visit Microsoft update a few times if one of those programs was the MS Office suite.
7. Redo all settings
8. Restore all your data from your backup.
That's all.

But not being able to read the drive can be caused by a motherboard failure also. That was the reason I had to replace my daughters first laptop for.

In that case, probably step 2 will already fail, saving you a lot of work. And result in having a nice new Windows 7 machine shortly (with a huge discount on Windows 8, if you prefer that above Windows 7, which seems a little bit doubtful reading the reviews).

Kees

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not worth it!

by janruss1 - 6/3/12 11:31 PM

In Reply to: Re: hard drive failure by Kees_B

Hi Thanks for your help. I am coming to the conclusion that it is not worth the effort and cost. The machine is probably 6 years old and I had been considering upgrading to a new laptop in the near future so maybe the time has come a bit earlier.

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