Hard Drive/Boot Error

[Lostjay007]

Not quite sure what the exact problem is, but here's the situation:

1. Had a lot of windows open, computer suddenly froze, so I switched the power off.

2. Then I get this message: WARNING: Dell's Disk Monitoring System has detected that drive 0 on the primary EIDE controller is operating outside of normal specifications. It is adviseable to immediately back up your data and replace your hard drive by calling your support desk or Dell Computer Corporation.

Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility.

3. So I press F1, get the bar of rectangles on the bottom of the screen I haven't seen since Windows 2000 and wait about 10 minutes at the bootup screen watching the blue bar go from side to side.

4. Tried booting my Windows XP CD to format or repair, but got black screen after it mentioned it would try to detect my settings. Oh and I had the "F1 key to continue..." here as well.

5. I'm also dual booting Fedora Core 5 and that booted up . Booted Knoppix from CD to back up the files as well.

6. I've tried getting in via Safe Mode but after a bit the computer restarted.

I'd like it if someone could help me boot into my windows or get my Windows XP CD to boot so that I can perhaps format or repair the partition.

Or possibly tell me what's going on.

Here are hardware specs if this helps:

Dell Dimension 8250, Pentium 4 2.4ghz, 120GB Western Digital, 768 RDRAM.

Thanks.

 

[Atheus]

How old is the drive? What brand? Is it making noises?

It is (probably) adviseable to immediately back up your data and replace your hard drive by calling your support desk or Dell Computer Corporation. Or just by going out and buying a hard drive.

 

[Lostjay007]

I don't hear any funny noises that are out of the ordinary.

Western Digital and around 4-5 years old.

 

[Atheus]

4-5 years is old. On the Western Digital site there is a tool called WD-diag (or similar) which you can run to test your disk. You don't need to boot to windows to use it.

 

[Lostjay007]

Alright, thanks, I'll get back to you after it finishes then.

 

[alzan]

Your drive is reporting a SMART error to the BIOS; one or more of the parameters the SMART system logs (drive temperature, seek times, etc.) is out of range.

Back-up and change out your drive.

alzan

 

[Lostjay007]

Thanks all.

Ran some tests and they seem to have come out fine, although WD's test reported some problems.

Just finished backing up my drive, then decided to try installing Windows XP over it once more.

Windows XP setup wouldn't start so I formatted it with WD's program and that worked.

Things are running well so far, but I'm guessing I'm just sitting on a ticking time bomb here?

Or could the problem have been having two hard drives inside?

Anyhow, time to shop, thanks all.