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Postby **Shao Feng-Li** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:58 am

I got this yesterday after the Dell start up screen... pressing keys made it repeat.

After a couple of times of this, it finally booted into Windows. I backed up all my stuff and reformatted.

But what the heck was going on?

Postby **Mithrandir** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:33 am

Backing up and reformatting is probably wise, but I would recommend a Hard Disk scan. If the computer does something wonky before booting, chances are the MBR (master boot record - the first 512 bytes on the disk) was corrupted. If you get it in the future, sometimes running:

Code: Select all: fdisk /mbr

can repair it, but not always. How much do you know about computers? If you can get a copy of the free tool UBCD (ultimate boot cd), you can run various freeware apps and check out all the hardware. It might be worth your time!

Good luck!

Postby **Saj** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:07 am

Most likely your boot record went the way of willy wonka. If it happens again, it might be a sign of your Hard drive getting ready to kick the bucket.

Postby **Shao Feng-Li** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:46 pm

Kick the bucket!? D:;

It is a little over a year old I guess and I do have a 320 external drive. Maybe I
ll go look for a new lptop HDD.

Postby **Saj** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:57 pm

Dont do it just yet. Random things happen to computers all the time. If it happens, i would say twice more, then start looking for a new hdd. Just make sure to keep everything thats important on that external.

Postby **Shao Feng-Li** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:49 pm

I'll do that then. That's been the only weird thing ever like that and I've had no other problems. I've found some really nice ones at NewEgg though. 7200 RPM, 100 gigs, 3.0 gb\s SATA and about $100.

I think that last thing is a good thing... heh.

Anyways, hasn't happened yet so far.

Kinda freaky here...

Kinda freaky here...

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