Laptop won't boot

Hello,
Please help me? I have a Dell laptop, Windows XP Home Edition, model PP12L. I was on Facebook, I think, when I got a hard drive error and the screen went black. I went to MRU and started the topic Laptop won't boot. There, Gary helped me to make a bootable Puppy Linux CD. I was able to boot with it, but when I tried to back up from the sda1 drive onto a USB stick, the sda1 drive wouldn't mount and open. I got an error:
Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter
Error: unable to mount sda1
I was able to get sbd1 and sr0 to mount and open. Gary thought that perhaps there is a hardware problem and refered me to this forum.

Sounds like a possible hard drive failure from your description.
The next logical step is to check the hard drive by doing the following.

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, try the Hitachi DFT CD Image version of the software

Thanks to Broni for the instructions

Hello, rshaffer61,

If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.[

My Hard Drive is Fujitsu. I'm not finding an .iso file, just .setupexe and WinDFTSetUp.msi. Am I looking in the wrong place? Doesn't it have to be an iso file to make a bootable CD?

Scroll down to the Toshiba\Fujitsu area and what you want is the DOS version. Then you can create the bootable disk using the instructions from before.

Hello, rshaffer61,
I downloaded DOS Diagnostic Tool Ver. 7.0 from this page onto my Desktop. There were no iso files, just FJDT.EXE and FJDT_V700.TXT. "Write image file to disc" in ImgBurn did not recognise the file as a supported file when I browsed for it. What am I doing wrong?

OK will your system boot to USB external device like a flash drive?
Put those two files on a usb drive and bot to a command prompt. At command prompt type FJDT.EXE and then click Enter
Let me know if it runs then.

Hello, rshaffer61,
If I am causing you frustration, I am very sorry.
Unless I misunderstood you, I believe you wanted me to press F8, boot into Safe Mode and go to the command prompt. The laptop won't allow this right now. So I went to the Dell site and entered my service tag in order to find diagnostic files and create a bootable CD. I downloaded the diagnostic iso file: cdd_1264.ISO
from the Dell site and used ImgBurn to create a bootable CD in order to boot into diagnostics. I am performing the Extended Test right now. Did I do the right thing?

Yes Kathy you did perfect. You are not causing me frustration and I do apologize if my post sounded that way. I am a very patient person and will stick with you till we figure this out one way or another good or bad.

Hello, rshaffer61, Your posts were nice; I was frustrated with myself, so I was afraid that I was frustrating you as well. I thought it would generate a log upon completion, but sinve it didn't, I'm glad I noted the errors: Device: IDE Disk S/N = NN4VT53164GJ Test; Read Test Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272127: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272128: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272129: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272130: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272131: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272132: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272133: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272134: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272135: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272136: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272137: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272138: Target drive aborted the command. Error Code: 0F00:0248. Msg: Block 4272139: Target drive aborted the command. All other areas passed.

Yeah it looks to me like the hard drive has or is failing. I think it is time to purchase a replacement since I'm sure it is not under warranty being a XP system. Do you have recovery disk for the laptop If you do there would be a OS installation disk and maybe a drivers disk along with a applications disk.

Hello, rshaffer61, I don't have a recovery disk. Can I create one? Should I try to get one from the guy who sold my laptop?

You can contact Dell and see if they have a set of original Recovery disks you can purchase. If they do they normally cost about $30.00. If the guy who sold you the laptop might have them I would contact him first. It is possible there are no recovery disks that were sent with the system.

Hello, rshaffer61, I sent a message asking him if he has recovery disks for this laptop.

OK please let me know what happens.

Hello, rshaffer61, He asked me to send it to him and he'd try to recover my hardrive. rebuild it and place it back. I dropped it off with someone who is going to bring it to him. Do you want me to post back with the results?