Help, Harddrive Failure

[aintnoscrub]

PLEASE DON'T ANSWER IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, I ONLY WANT ACTUAL SUGGESTIONS AND HELP..

okay so the old dell we have has now started failing, and i need to know if there is any possible fix, whether it be temp or not, just so we can at least log on one more time to retrieve pictures etc to move them to new laptop.
Ran a diagnostics test and this was what failed:
DST short status Test
Error Code: 1000-0142
MSG: Unit 4: Drive Self Test Failed.Status Byte=79

when we load it up, it gets past first screen that gives you the option of press F2(for example) then on the second loading screen, it gives us "disk Read Error...Ctrl+ALT+DLT" to restart.

i have tried using BartsPE as a virtual enviroment, but for some reason it wouldn't load it, maybe that was a fault of my own, but for now, i cannot gain access to the relevant system files to try booting BartsPE from USB, because disk failed.

So...If anyone has had this problem before, or if you have any suggestions, get back to me ASAP

irate:

 

[L]

Well dude the best answer i have for you is getting a new boot device but it could be expensive to get and install in.

(a boot device IS NOT a hardrive)

 

[aintnoscrub]

i know i know, i'm currently looking for non expensive ways to fix it lol, usually when it comes to pc problems, i have this virtual enviroment, which can be used as a temp desktop, which you can boot into and fix most things, not this time though....

 

[Evil Fan]

Try posting it on Core, that site is meant for tech support.

 

[echoey]

In other words try an look up a good tech support forum, but urh, my friend is at work right now, he is good with computers when hes back online, ill forward him your message he might know some advice

he alwyas fixxes my computer for me lol.. all i have to do is give him the computer an he just sorts it all out lol hes a genius

 

[aintnoscrub]

yes please if you could, show him the original message i posted on here, see what he says, i know its possible to fix it using windows recovery console, but i don't have any disks atm to put xp on, so that'll have to wait till the week, so for now i'm looking for at least a temporary fix.

 

[echoey]

Will do x

 

[echoey]

my mate had a look. he searched the error code on google.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/17325253.aspx
Before your replace your hard drive when getting this error, try this- Boot from a Windows XP CD and choose Repair at the first prompt to get the recovery console. Type "chkdsk c: /p/r" at the prompt. Repeat until there are no errors found. Exit and reboot. It worked for me.

If you repair windows you wont loose any files but it your format you'll loose everything lol do you know how to boot from CDROM insted of hard drive

 

[aintnoscrub]

thanks echoey, yeah i know how set the bios to boot cd first, i did try the recovery console but with a different commands, i'll give that a try, hope the hdd is not to ****ed fix itself

 

[echoey]

cool man, hope you get your files back. I'll bug my mate again if it dont work out haha
Or tell him to join the fozzy lol.

 

[dark_zero]

if you put it in another computer you can repair it.