Dell Inspiron 1525: HELP! will not start- up!

[tee.star]

I bought my dell inspiron almost 2 years ago and it will not start up.
When I turn on my laptop, it tells me that it needs to can for start-up problems and even after that it will not work.

So I tried re-booting it yesterday. Done and it worked fine for 6 hours. Turned on my laptop today it just tells me it has not been shut down properly. It also showed this message:

Windows Logon Corrupt File
The dile or directory "_____" is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the ??disk utility (sorry i took a picture of the msg but its blurred)

I have to push the power button to restart my laptop many times and sometimes it will show the login window where I typed in my password and it will just freeze there but running Safe Mode is okay for me. I kinda dropped my laptop 2 days ago, can that be one of the reasons why?

Someone please help me!!

 

[drougier]

Sound like a hard drive problem! If you can access to your data then back it up immediately!
- First try to login in a command prompt mode (press F8 during start and select Safe Mode with Command prompt to boot in MS-DOS mode), once in run the command chkdsk /f /r, it will check your hard drive and It'll try to fix bad sectors.
- Secondly (if you can't login)Try with a Live CD like Hiren's Boot CD or Windows MiniPE and run the same Command on it.
- Thirdly try a utility called WD Diagnostic, It's a Western Digital diagnostic tool, and maybe it can fix the problem.
- To discard a Hard Drive failure you can also remove the HD from the laptop and connect it to a normal PC (if the HD is a SATA drive) and try to access your files through the PC OS.
- and try to boot the laptop with a linux live CD like Ubuntu and without a HD connected, if the laptop works well then maybe the HD is broken or the sata/ide port on the motherboard is.

PD: Sorry about my english! I hope you can understand me

Good luck with your laptop! Cheers!

 

[MindoverMaster]

Your hard drive may be failing. Get an Ubuntu Live CD, and get all your data backed up.

What OS do you have? If XP, you can do a repair install. With Vista and 7, you have to do a fresh install. Some Windows files are getting corrupt, therefore, your OS is looking for something that isn't there 100%

 

[tee.star]

Thanks for the reply guys!
I booted my laptop and have everything saved in an external hd already. I am running on Vista.
This morning I was able to log in normally but it freezes when I open other programs.
So, I tried to login in 'safe mode command prompt' it stop @ crcdisk.sys for a loong time.
I'm thinking that I should just get a HD. What HD would you guys recommend me & what's the price range? I am totally clueless about computers ( -_- )

 

[tee.star]

yikes. i can't even get on safe mode anymore. it's a black screen telling me something is corrupt. best idea is to get a new HD? yes?

what is the best type of hd should I get for my laptop? Any recommendations or where I shall get it? thanks!

 

[MindoverMaster]

I suspect you live in the US? Get it from Newegg.com

What size was your hard drive? Here is your starting point:

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Hard Drives,Laptop Hard Drives,SATA 3.0Gb/s,5400 RPM

Western Digital and Seagate are my top two.

 

[drougier]

Before you buy a new one try to install the OS again. As you told us you had already backed up your data then there is nothing to lose... Try a fresh install and see what happens! Maybe was an error in the file system or something else...try to discard all the possibilities before buying a new HD.
And I agree with MindoverMaster, WD and Seagate would be good brands

 

[tee.star]

Before you buy a new one try to install the OS again. As you told us you had already backed up your data then there is nothing to lose... Try a fresh install and see what happens! Maybe was an error in the file system or something else...try to discard all the possibilities before buying a new HD.
And I agree with MindoverMaster, WD and Seagate would be good brands

Thanks your input!
the error reads: a disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart
this is what happends when I turn on my laptop and when I try to restart the same prob occurs.. :/

how can I install the OS? I don't have a disk that came with the laptop. Sorry, I'm not a computer wiz ..

I do live in the US. thanks for the recommendations (^ ^ )b
My HD is 160 GB does that matter?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Well, you don't want a smaller 120GB, I'm thinking..

Since you do have all your data backed up, try drougier's suggestion. But I'm quite sure it is you HDD failing.

 

[tee.star]

Well, you don't want a smaller 120GB, I'm thinking..

Since you do have all your data backed up, try drougier's suggestion. But I'm quite sure it is you HDD failing.

Can something be loose in there that's causing the problem because I kinda dropped it 2 day ago.. I don't have the disk to install Vista.. I guess i need to purchase one.