Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

The drive hasn't failed completely - in command mode I can do a directory and see the files.

How do I access the recovery partition and what state will it take me back to?

Thenks for the quick replies Keith

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

I also heard that it has to be from a Dell (any Dell disk will do), but not from another make of PC - is that right?

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

Yes what about thr recovery partition?

Any dell oem disc will verify as genuine, you wont need to activate it or put any keys in, its 100% genuine. So download one or buy a dell oem OS disc of ebay for a £5 like i did.

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

I wrote the key combination for the recovery partition above.

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

So manufacturers buy a Volume license, meaning the installer will know if your disc isn't a Dell volume license installation

This may well not be the case though, I've not had it stop me in the past


This may be of use:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822800

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

Yes - you did - sorry !!

Will that take it back to the condition when I bought it? I assume so

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

If you recover from the Dell partition it's likely your documents will be erased...

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

So if I get a cheap dell XP disk and reinstall XP that might be a better solution, as then I'll have an XP disk for future use?

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

Depends what you want to do, if you need your files off it get a cheap caddy and plug the hdd into another pc and recover them. Then use the recovery partition or disc, this will erase all files usually.

You can also just run a repair installation with a disc that will leave you files intact.

I would recommend getting a dell oem disc off ebay as you know its a genuine untempered OS.

Incidently did you manage to get rid of your original error?

Re: Is my hard drive damaged?
 

You do not need a Dell install CD just because it's a Dell OEM key. You may have issues with activation, but the activation system will give you a telephone number for Microsoft and when you explain the situation to them, they will allow activation. This shouldn't be a huge issue anyway, as you have 30 days to activate.

The main problem I foresee is that you do not have drivers for all your PC's components. I would suggest the following:

If you can boot from the recovery partition, check the recovery options. You may have the option to repair an existing installation. If so, try that.

Alternatively, you may have the option to completely recover the hard drive and restore it to its factory state. Do not do this until you have backed up your files.

The cheapest options for backing up your user files would be to install the hard drive in someone else's machine, or installing an additional hard drive in your machine with a bootable operating system on.