Help--pc will not boot up.

donny-gal

Atro1 - don't bend, lift it onto a table

Don't just buy a new HD, it may not be that, you have to check the connections out as the guys above have said first. With a Dell PC you should have all the disks to install windows and the windows drivers. They do no come pre-installed. You can also get the latest drivers for your pc from the Dell Website. DG

GlynD

OP have you carried out the tests we recommended? As regards the price of a new hard drive - I can find them here http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Storage/cat/Hard-Drive---Internal twice as big for £74. They don't have to be Western Digitial you see, they can be any make as long as they are SATA.

GlynD

Here's a Hitachi SATA drive - twice as big as yours £39.99 from PC World http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/3-5-inch-hard-drives/715_7052_70056_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html

atro1

Ended up paying for a refurb. they trans all my data and emails. At least its done.
Many thanks to all that tried to help,just sorry I never suceeded.

victor2

Don't throw away the old computer. You, or a friend, can almost certainly get it working again - and do it at your leisure as it's no longer your main computer.
Also, sort out a backup regime for your important documents/photos. There's a number of options for doing that and as already said, it's not a question of if a hard drive fails, but when.

GlynD

Atro, just out of interest: what did they do on the refurb? Did they find any issue with your hard drive?

atro1

victor2 wrote: »

Don't throw away the old computer. You, or a friend, can almost certainly get it working again - and do it at your leisure as it's no longer your main computer.
Also, sort out a backup regime for your important documents/photos. There's a number of options for doing that and as already said, it's not a question of if a hard drive fails, but when.

Just about everything I now do I back up on a memory stick.



GlynD Did not ask in the end and foolishly let them have the old pc.But they did say the motherboard had probably gone, or was going.

GlynD

atro1 wrote: »

Just about everything I now do I back up on a memory stick.



GlynD Did not ask in the end and foolishly let them have the old pc.But they did say the motherboard had probably gone, or was going.

Ah I see. So their opinion was that it wasn't your hard drive which was the problem. That kind of vindicates everyone who tried to help. It's often very difficult when trying to advise someone when you're not there and can't see the behaviour of the machine so it's helpful to know that diagnosis is accurate.

I wouldn't get obsessed with backup. But it is always helpful to have a secondary drive installed or have one you can attach by USB. Memory stick is a cheap option as well. Make sure you back up up your e-mails too if they're important. If you don't know how to back up the core file for that come back on here and one of us will tell you.

The most important things from all of this is that a: you now have a working machine which you're happy with and b: that you learned a lot about how PC's work and won't be so reticent in the future about pulling the guts of one apart if you need to. The satisfaction of fixing a problem yourself is amazing.