Error loading operating system message on Dell Inspiron 60000

Surrender

I keep getting an "Error loading Operating System" message after the bios check on booting my laptop. When I ran the recovery console I couldn't run chkdsk or fixboot. I think my hard drive is packing up. Can anyone help?

Shane O' Malley

It does sound like the HD has died.

Can you still see it in the BIOS.

It could be possible to boot from a Linux Live CD and see if you can access the drive. It could be that the Boot sector is corrupt but the rest might be fine.

Firstly see if it is listed in the BIOS.

Surrender

Thanks for reply Shane, I ran a program called Spinrite off a bootable usb stck. It repaired a number of dodgy sectors. I then reinstalled windows from the installation cd and I was back in business.

I'd say the HDD is going to die soon though but Spinrite saved a lot of stuff for me. I'd recommend this to anyone with a similar problem. I heard that booting knoppix (linux os) from a cd would do the same thing though.

I think the Innpirons 6000 are dodgy though, I found a lot of HDD problem posts on the Dell Forum for this model. I'd recommend making a ghost image if anyone has one.

Anyway, problem solved but I'd give the hard drive a week after this.

Shane O' Malley

Good to hear.