Seeking advice on non-booting Dell Laptop

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Thudds

11 posts

Geek

#36161 20-Jun-2009 21:33

Howdy
Ran Disk Check (Chkdsk) on a Dell Inspiron 8600. This gave the BSOD and the laptop will not boot into Windows XP anymore. Unfortunately the DVD drive isn't working. I can access the BIOS & bootscreen where gave the option to boot from a USB stick. I tried this technique for creating a Bootable XP USB stick:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6160062.html#comments
All went as described but did not boot from the 2 USB sticks I tried. Whether it was the sticks or my own muckups I don't know.
Is it possible to access the laptop harddrive from my desktop throught ethernet or usb? Can anyone please offer a solution or point me in the right direction?
Cheers

geeksonwheels

16 posts

Geek

#229182 29-Jun-2009 13:31

You could try getting a external USB case for the laptop drive to plug it into your desktop. You can usually pick these up for around $35. If you do end up doing that, try running scandisk on the drive from your desktop and see if it finds any issues, then try booting it on the laptop again.

Thudds

11 posts

Geek

#229217 29-Jun-2009 15:08

Hi geeksonwheels, thanks for the suggestion. Was wondering if I'd have to open my first laptop. Luckily for me and the laptop, I discovered the dvd drive could read rewritables but not my xp install disc. I managed to load a boot dvd and restore the laptop back to booting in xp.
Thanks :)

geeksonwheels

16 posts

Geek

#229248 29-Jun-2009 16:58

Good news then. Laptop drives are easy to remove, just need to flip it over and remove some screws and a panel to get access to it in most cases.