Windows Vista 2 computers with hard drive failures

Hi,
I have two computer calls pending, both are less than a year old, both have had hard drive failures (One computer is a Dell with Vista and the other is a Dell with Windows Xp)...The computer with Xp may be resolved by installing a new hard drive and not sure what may be the end result with the Vista computer...However, what is disturbing to me and I like to call it something less than a scam is, neither computer came with it's own installation disc. The owner of the Xp computer called up and ordered ( "paid ") for her own recovery disc which may be what the owner of the Xp computer will end up doing...Is this type of problem a common one of lately or is it just the nature of the beast ??? I am also looking for any info anyone may have that will lead me to a specific cause ??? Thanks

 

Hi Steve Jones,
Good question...The computer with the Xp was determined by a computer tech from a local computer store which I have posted about in Windows Xp but the current one that has Vista gave the following:

Black screen says : read disc
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del

After pressing the above, the next screen says:
Insert Installation Disc
Restart computer
Choose Language settings
Click repair computer
Windows\System32\ntkrnlpa.exe

Rebooted the computer, next screen saysreduced info for this post)
Message refrenced about faulty hardware mentioning Hard Drive, CD-Rom or faulty hardware. Info: An unexpected I/O error has occurred.

During one of the above it also gave: 0xc00000e9
When I checked it out, one of the possible causes possibly is related to one of the USB ports, if anything was plugged into a USB port and became unplugged then plugged back in could create this problem...I have not looked into that and I'm not so sure that is the problem...

The owner does not have a Vista Installation disc and thanks to you I will call and see if I can get the free recovery disc from Dell...

 

All the Dells I've messed with that came with Vista preinstalled...including my own...came with Vista disks. However, they're labeled "Operating System," not "Windows Vista" and they don't have the expected Microsoft label. The label is actually rather plain so it's easily overlooked.

The Vista owner should look through the disks again to make sure the Vista "Operating System" disk wasn't overlooked.

Oh yeah...it's also in a paper sleeve, not a plastic case.

 

Hi Miz,
Thank you and when I looked for that disc myself I found one but unfortunately I don't recall what it said but can be positive it did not say Windows Vista which is probably what I was looking for and may be why I don't recall what the one I found said...

 

Miz,
Last night I finally remembered what the disc said (which was the only one I found), it was an upgrade disc which I'm not sure why that came packaged with the computer...Anyways, I am going to try and get more info on both computers and see if they have anything in common and post back with that as well...For now I am puzzled because both owners do very little on their computers, both computers are less than a year old and until more is known both have what "appears" to be hard drive issues from unknown causes.

 

Hi,
HDD manufacturers are now offering 5 years warranty on their drives (although you will only get Dell's warranty), which says they are getting quite confident about an increased lifespan of their products. Why would drives fail after such a short time?

A classic reason is "thrashing ". If there is not a "decent" amount of RAM available and there are several/many programs or background programs running, the system will start utilizing virtual memory (RAM is physical memory). Virtual memory uses the HDD for storage (Pagefile). When programs are opened they are swapped into RAM and onto the HDD as Pagefile. The HDD is reading and writing at maximum until the programs are loaded and running. This is termed "thrashing ". Check the amount of RAM is more than sufficient. Pagefile is an overflow for having a lot of memory usage. If the system is running on Pagefile at startup or after the first program is opened, it won't survive very long.

Many drives I find, that appear dead, are not really. The computer's BIOS reads the information from the MBR of the drive. If the MBR is corrupt, the drive may "disappear ". If you still have the drives, run the HDD manfacturer's utilities on them. It may require that you update/reinstall the MBR or even run a low-level (zero) format on them, but they may be perfectly fine.

Matt

 

Hi,
Thank you for the info, all is greatly appreciated...The computer with Xp I have not been able to connect with the owner for a few days now so I'm not sure what's happening there...The computer with Vista, since it's still under warranty I recommended it be takened back to place of purchase and let them fix the whatevers....So I guess we can close this particular post and if by chance there's anything to add within a reasonable time I will but I'm not expecting too...Once again Thank you...

 

Hi,

My name is Todd and I'm with Dell's online outreach program. At one time we stopped sending reinstallation media with new systems since we were installing reimaging partitions on the systems that performed the same function.

If a hard drive does fail our technicians are supposed to confirm with the customer whether they have the media needed to reinstall, and if they don't, include the disks with the hard drive that is being sent out. If you have hard drives being replaced chances are the media will be sent as well.

If you didn't receive the Windows CDs please let me know and I'll have them sent out to you. I'll stop back later to see if you do need the disks or if there is anything else I can do to help you.

Thank you,

Todd

Customer Advocate
Dell, Inc.

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/11/19/3648.aspx

 

Hi DellCA,
Great to hear from you and I thank you as well...The computer with the Vista finally did a system recovery so I think we can pass on that for now and as for the other one, I am expected to return to that particular one which has the Windows Xp in it soon and I can post back with what's happening there within the next couple of days if that's okay with you...If they are needed how may I provide my mailing address to you ? Maybe you can send me an email thru this forum and we can connect that way ??? Once again thanks for jumping in here and offerring your assistance...

 

Hi,

You can email me at Customer_Advocate@Dell.com to reach me. Please include my first name (Todd) in the subject line of the email so it gets routed directly to me. I'll be glad to send out the Windows CDs if you decide you need them. I'll just need the service tag of that system and the address you want the CD sent to.

Let me know how it goes and if you need me to do anything for you.

Thank you,

Todd

Customer Advocate
Dell, Inc.

 

Hi DellCA,
Once again, thanks a million and I'll keep you posted...