disk boot failure error...HD?

VelocityVelocity
edited August 2007 in Hardware
Sister inlaw called said she's gettin a black screen with disk boot failure msg on it. I told her to restart puter and I could hear the squeaking over the phone it was that loud.
I had her throw in the XP cd and hit enter, and it still just layed on that disk boot failure screen.
Is it safe to assume its the HD? Best dang puter I ever owned, its an 8 year old Alienware and this is the first hardware failure.
Figure I'll just throw in a small cheap HD from staples, they only surf the net and do email.
I never replaced a HD before, i'm assuming other then swappin out the parts, its no different then doin a fresh install, which i've had alot of practice with lately.

Comments

  • bschiebschie
    edited August 2007
    Try changing the bios setting to boot from cd-rom and then try one of the live linux cd/dvds like knoppix. That way you can see if it is the HDD or not.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    black screen with disk boot failure msg on it. I told her to restart puter and I could hear the squeaking over the phone it was that loud.
    If it's a bad sound at the same time as a boot disk failure message, it's a 95% chance that the hard drive has failed. Any more use of the hard drive at all will only cause additional damage to whatever data is on the drive.
  • VelocityVelocity
    edited August 2007
    Well did a HD change last night on this old alienware and nothing went according to the Maxtor instructions. I found the cd that came with the Maxtor HD to be absolutely worthless. The puter didnt do anything that the instructions said would happen.
    Thankfully, the windows cd handled everything just fine and I got a happy sis-inlaw.
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