BleepingComputer.com: Getting stuck in Recovery Console

Hello All!

I am trying to "fix" my mother's laptop that has boot problem amongst other things. When I power on I get the Dell splash and then black screen with the cursor up top on the left..hanging basically. She does not have the Windows installation CD (can't find it), I can't boot into safe mode (obviously), and I am hitting a wall in the steps of recovery console. This is what I have done so far:

1. Burned an ISO CD to boot. I can get to the Recovery Console and type in "R" and it takes me to the prompt C:\>
2. I have done CHKDSK C: /r with the result of: The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems
3. Ran diagnostics and received failure of DST Short Test once and then ran it again on another day and it passed...

Basically I am just stuck on what to do next at the C:\> prompt. I am not asked for a password of any kind. I don't really know what to do next and I appreciate all the help I can get. Thank you in advance.

You need to run the long test on the hard drive, using the appropriate diagnostic tool available at the website of the hard drive manufacturer.

Before doing that, I suggest that you move any data files deemed valuable...from the hard drive they are currently on.

The inability of chkdsk /r to complete...normally indicates either a file system or a hard drive problem. Although somewhat different, each typically has the ultimate same result, a clean install of the O/S and loss of possible continued access to files on the drive.

Louis

Hi Louis,

Thank you for your quick reply. I will try and run that today and see what I get. My mom is aware of the fact that she may in fact lose whatever she had on the hard drive, and that is okay. So far every avenue I have looked into told me that I would need to do a clean install. Problem is....she does not have her Windows XP installation CD.

I will post results of the long test as soon as I can complete it. Thanks again for the response!

Mahalo,
Cinni_mini