Dell complaints

dgoldsmith · Journeyman Dellhater Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Posts: 10

Thank you for your reply. Please clarify what you mean by "drive diagnostics": I got these errors from the (Dell-furnished?) diagnostics you run from selecting F12 on start-up, which included many other kinds of diagnostics (i.e., they didn't come from an HDD-specific diagnostic program). So, do these count as "drive diagnostics," or do I need to test (and how) w/ an HDD-specific program? Thanks again!

DG

MagiAwen · Journeyman Dellhater Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Posts: 22

I don't have much to add...except that I would go ahead and try to get data off by slaving and then see what happens after using the chkdsk and a defrag ... if it will complete them.

Quite possibly the drive is gone forever...but I would still try those things...just to see.

And as I have been told by numerous Dell Telephone Technicians over the last few years, "Yeah, those diagnostics don't really matter, most don't work"

haha

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:10 pm Post subject:

The Dell diagnostics will name the device that is failing then give a cryptic number that won't mean anything to you. If it names the drive as failing, you can ignore the code and replace the drive. Dell's drive diagnostics will pass certain failures, but if it says there is an error, there definitely is.

It is highly unlikely that the error resulted from malware.
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

nashdell · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 1:39 pm Post subject: Re Error code

If all else fails and it looks like you can't get it to happen then try Knoppix.
It is a free download and is a live Linux disk that will allow you to read and copy a drive.
It sometimes and I reiterate sometimes Knoppix will see into a drive that Winblows and some of the diagnostic disks will not.
It's handy to have around anyway if a Win box wont boot chances are it will boot in Knoppix.
It will also alow you to repair a Win registry and many other ugly things that you may be looking forward to.
At lease Knoppix can tell you if it is just the drive or if there are other serious issues.
I have been able to use Knoppix and restore a hard drive and or copy all the data when nothing else would work.
Hope this may help.
Here is a link... there are others

http://www.knoppix.net/get.php
_________________
The E in Dell and the E in Enron point the same way!

http://bitsnbites.org/dellenron.htm

Michael Dell: "I think that you’ve got to look at the reputations of the people that you’re going to go work for and work with. And say, ‘Do I believe these people, do I trust them?"

jrhall59 · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

I had experienced the same problem. also my stupid A-- did not back up recently either. I got my laptop to boot by putting the OS disk in and while it was booting hit the F12 key and selected boot from CD. The drivers were all reinstalled and when asked if i wanted to install or repair,I typed repair after the prompt C:>. When the prompt was back I typed chkdsk and hit enter. The reply was disk appears to be ok, type /p if you wish to check anyway. So I typed chkdsk( hit space bar)/p. several errors were found and repaired. I then typed exit and system rebooted and I chose normal start up and my system completely booted and I'm back in to backup all my files as I don't know when this will happen again. I hope this works for you as it did for me. Good luck. Very Happy

let me know if this helps. I was lucky enough that it worked for me.

FallenAngel · Emperor of Dellhateology Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 1604

The CHKDSK /P trick is a common workaround to get you in long enough to back up data, provided that your drive ain't so bad off that even that won't work.

Just know that if you have to use that, your drive is telling you it's dying.

jrhall59 · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

Since i was able to get back in and backup my data I'm happy. Hell the damn thing can fry right now and it would not bother me. I did learn that valuble lesson back it up, back it up, back it up!!!!!!

hemi68charger · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:46 am Post subject:

Hello all.Newbie here...
I've just run into a similiar problem due to power off while the computer was on...

I recently moved and can't find my Dell boot up disk that came with the computer for the life of me............ I have an old Windows 95/98 start up floppy and the A: reads it when I try to boot.. Question is:

Can I use this to get to the A: drive, then cd C: to run the chkdsk /r command?

Cheers,
Troy

wrongpassword · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 08 Jun 2009 Posts: 1

Hi Guys,

I'm having the same error message(s) but when I try and boot with the XP disc I go to the boot menu and select the drive but an exclamation
mark just appears next to the name of the drive and nothing happens.
Almost all data is backed up but just a handful of files need to be got.
ANy suggestions?

Cheers
New User
Crying or Very sad

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:25 pm Post subject:

Troy: I don't know what boot disc you mean. The pre-XP boot command interface--the one that could boot from A:--can't read XP files, would typically say 'file not found' if you did that.

Password: I might have a clue hands-on, but not at a distance. I never saw an exclamation appear on a boot menu, didn't even know that could happen.
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

Lani · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 1

I have recently had a problem with my computer and did the scan as suggested by Dell and got the error codes 0F00:0244 and 0F00:1A44 but the error msg on these were different to above, they both said DISK-0-Block 756301001:Cant read, replace disk or remove Write Protection. Does anyone know if this is a software or hardware problem?? My computer is only six months old so still under warranty and i want dell to fix it

virtual_ted · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 30 Oct 2009 Posts: 1

I have the same problem with bad sectors, which is funny as I had recently did a defrag & Chk Dsk. Anyways, two bad sectors and a bad CD drive mean I can only boot externally from a USB. Is this even possible?

Once booted, plan is to save data and throw computer off a bridge.

Cheers
ted
_________________
LET'S CHAT ABOUT DELL HELL!

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:14 pm Post subject:

USB boot is possible but I can't tell you how.

Take the drive out, toss the rest over a bridge, recover what you can with the new computer.

A member recently reported drive failure after defrag. Defrag is a lot of exercise for a drive. If it's on the edge to start with, that can send it over.
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

dam263468 · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 2

I have an Inspiron 5100 and the diagnostic is showing the same error codes. I would like to recover some of my data. I also have a Seagate USB HDD. Is it possible to boot on the USB HDD and access my internal HDD to copy some files?

diashto · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 7:53 am Post subject:

You'd have to jump through some pretty complicated hoops to get a boot sector onto your external so that it could boot.. I dont think the 5100 can boot from a USB device anyway, so you could be SOL. Your best option would be to get an external enclosure for your harddrive and try plugging it into a different computer.