System won't boot

I have "inherited" a Dell desktop Dimension 4550 from a neighbor who asked for my help. The system will not boot – it comes up to the screen that says that the last startup attempt failed, and gives options to boot to last known good, safe mode, etc. Attempting any of them results in the system cycling back around to the same screen. Running Dell diagnostics kicks up two errors on the hard drive: fails confidence test (result code 0F00-1344) on block 36854097, and fails Read Test (result code 0F00-0244) with the same block number. I have a bootable XP CD that I made some time ago using PE-Builder. I know it's still good, because I booted another system off of it earlier today. When I attempt to boot this system off of it, however, it accesses the CD-ROM drive for a couple of minutes, then goes to a screen that says "Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". I've tried both from the boot menu and by changing the order of boot devices in the BIOS. I had concluded that the hard drive was bad, but am now concerned since it won't boot off the CD-ROM that it's deeper than that. I can (and will) remove the hard drive to rescue the contents (of COURSE the neighbor didn't have anything backed up). Any ideas on what the root problem is and what it will take to fix it? I'm pretty close to concluding the system needs to be replaced, but thought I'd get a second opinion….. TIA

The confidence fails on the hard drive are telling you the hard drive has bad sectors. It looks like it isn't that serious and a good drive diagnostic program could lock those sectors out and you could still use the hard drive. I use a progam called SpinRite, which is not free, but the Microsoft chkdsk command can also do a surface scan if you use the /r option with it.

The CD-Rom is probably dirty or bad also, but I would verify that by trying at least one other known good boot disc.

If you have a windows XP cd, you can boot to recovery console with it, and run the chkdsk /r command. It is likely that once the command finishes you will be able to boot your system again normally with no ill side effects. Many times with one or two bad sectors the system will not boot, but after the chkdsk command it will work fine. I often wonder what file or two is corrupt, but they never seem to show themselves.

Hmmm – okay, thanks for your input. I'm away from home for the weekend, but will get back on it Monday. I'll have to make another bootable CD; I don't think I've got a Windows CD sitting around. And if it doesn't boot, see what I can do about swapping the CD Drive. It's got two, so perhaps changing the order will let me boot using the other one. Stay tuned!

Aha! So, I downloaded and burned a bootable CD of the XP Recovery console that Ztruker recommended in Tech Tips, and lo and behold THAT booted. I was then able to run chkdsk, which found and corrected one or more problems. Once that was done, the system booted successfully. Of course, the first bloody thing I find once it boots is Antiviruspro 2009, so I'll be off to the Malware forum once I do a few self-help things. Meanwhile, thanks very much for your help.

Great… It is important to do at least one more chkdsk /r scan once you get done with all the malware removal and cleanup on the system. Or, do another check with the system BIOS like you did previously. It is important that no more bad sectors are found otherwise the hard drive is most likely failing.

Good point, thank you. I have done a lot of clean-up to get the system usable, and to be able to get it on the internet. Then ran another diagnostic scan, and did not find any additional bad blocks. I'll probably run it once more before I give it back to her; meanwhile I've posted a HJT Log over in the Malware forum. Thanks again for your guidance.