My laptop was working fine today and then I shut down for around an hour or so and then turned on my laptop again. After the DELL bios screen I received a message that the operating system did not load. It gave me several options. None of these options worked. I then tried to use the disk and boot from that and repair the problem. The computer said it repaired the issue but I cannot get the operating system to load. Can someone please help me figure this out?
Thanks
Scott
I am not sure what the problem is - what is the exact error message? It could be a corrupt installation of Vista, but it sounds like a corrupt or failing hard drive - but I am sure the first thing you should do is back up any and all critical/sensitive data on your laptop drive - to include documents, favorites/bookmarks, email, password safe, etc. The safest way to do that, IMO, is to get a 2.5" External Enslosure or a Laptop to IDE Hard Drive Adapter and install the drive into an enclosure, or as a secondary/slave drive directly into another PC, perhaps the one you are using to post here. Then copy any data you wish not to lose.
A significant advantage to connecting a suspect drive to another PC as a secondary (not boot) drive is you can analyze the drive with the host PC's anti-malware and diagnostics tools without having to boot to the suspect drive.
You can also take note of the laptop drive make and model number, then see Hard Drive Diagnostics for a link to your drive maker's site for the latest version of their diagnostics tool.
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