Dell PC reporting fatal hard disk error

NiftyDigits

littlerock wrote: »

where do I find the service tag?

http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukbsdt1

littlerock

my PC is a Dell vostro mini tower 460 with a I tb HDD. i now need to source a compatible replacement HDD . (I am assuming I cannot get an identical HDD at this stage.) Is there somewhere I can contact which supplies compatible Dell spares . (I have the part number - ST 31000528AS - which was quoted as part of the error message - appears to be a Seagate drive). Or is there a Dell forum where they might advise?

googler

littlerock wrote: »

my PC is a Dell vostro mini tower 460 with a I tb HDD. i now need to source a compatible replacement HDD . (I am assuming I cannot get an identical HDD at this stage.) Is there somewhere I can contact which supplies compatible Dell spares . (I have the part number - ST 31000528AS - which was quoted as part of the error message - appears to be a Seagate drive). Or is there a Dell forum where they might advise?

There is no such thing as a specific 'Dell-compatible' hard drive or SSD.

Any SATA hard drive of your chosen capacity will do. It doesn't even have to be the same capacity as existing, nor the same make.

There are upgrade guides in the support section of the Dell website -

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Products/desktop/vostro_desktop?app=manuals&country=us&lang=en&seg=19

Enter your model number or auto-detect it here to find manuals for yours - there seem to be quite a few Vostro models

It's most likely to be a 3.5" SATA HDD, but you can check this by opening the case and having a look. There's plenty of guides on YouTube and the web which will visually guide you.

Or there's the Dell guide here

http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_vostro_desktop/vostro-460_service%20manual_en-us.pdf

It clearly has two drive bays, so you could consider getting two HDDs, or one SSD and and HDD, and implementing the "OS on SSD, data on HDD" approach that I suggested above.

tonyh66

littlerock wrote: »

my PC is a Dell vostro mini tower 460 with a I tb HDD. i now need to source a compatible replacement HDD . (I am assuming I cannot get an identical HDD at this stage.) Is there somewhere I can contact which supplies compatible Dell spares . (I have the part number - ST 31000528AS - which was quoted as part of the error message - appears to be a Seagate drive). Or is there a Dell forum where they might advise?

Any SATA hard drive will do, it doesn't have to be a dell part or a seagate.
Western digital drives are more reliable.
Buy a new internal HD and sata cable, plug it into a spare socket on the motherboard and clone the original drive across.

And get rid of the 'friendly' tech who wants you to buy hardware and software you don't need.

googler

Depending on your environment, it may be quite dusty inside. I recommend, once you've unplugged it from everything and taken the cover off, that you take it outside before using a can of compressed air to blow the grot away. You really don't want to distribute it inside the house......

S0litaire

just in case it's of any help :
http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/seatools/

That's the link for Seagate's utility disk. that will be able to tell you exactly what's wrong with the drive.

Windows "helpfull" error message are anything but. it might be something not so fatal that an intensive disk check and full formatting won't fix. to the drive is 10 seconds away from giving up the ghost!