Dell desk top taking a dump

So our old Dell computer is acting up after being shut off for a while we turned it on and got this

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and after that it was this

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and froze like that. What should I do? You'll have to put it in the simple terms as I am no computer tech. Thanks

Hi JFoster, Your course of action depends upon several considerations: 1. If there is valuable information, documents, correspondence, addresses, etc. on that Hard Drive, have you already kept it backed-up to an external HD or CD/DVD ? If not and unhappily you now need to salvage information to be saved…. 2. Do you have an external HD available if necessary to transfer any retrieved information you wish to save? 3. Do you have a second well functioning Desk Top into which you could temporarily install this machine's HD in order to copy/save data? 4. Do you have a second well functioning computer with which you can burn CD/DVDs? 5. Do you have a spare hard drive that you can install in that same faulting machine to freshly install a Windows operating system. _________________________– The warning and freeze that you have experienced predicts imminent failure of your hard drive. You should completely stop using that hard drive if there is important data on it which you wish to retrieve. In reality, the HD may already be beyond salvage, or have only a few minutes of life left in it, or may run for a few hours, days or more. If you are not worried about data retrieval, it may be as simple as removing the failing HD and replacing it with a fresh good one, and then install your Windows, drivers, updates, and applications. Bottom-line is that: ! if you have kept your backups current, this may be an annoying bump in the road, but one from which you can recover quickly. 2. if there is important information/data that you hope to retrieve at this late date, you may be in for some hardship, difficult work, and probable loss. Only you know the answers to the above. Please let us know. Only then can we begin developing a plan for your next steps. Best Regards

Thanks for the helpful info. There are some pics and other stuff on it but nothing we can't live with without. I was mainly wondering what it would take to get it going again. Probably a good excuse to pick up another lap top.