Disk read error, can not boot, HELP!
 

OK I think my hard drive is about to die, I have a dell dimension thats about 2 years old last night the screen froze and the hard drive start making a diga,dig, dig noise (if that makes sense).

I rebooted and got the message "disk read error" press ctrl alt and del

Tried this and after a couple of times it booted but then froze again so I swapped the hard drive in to another computer everything worked fine, Apart from the fact I couldnt access any of the info on the hard disk because of the stupid win xp activation!

I tried running it as a slave on another computer everything works but it wont let me access the "my documents" folder it says access denied, how can I get round this? I need to get all my work off there before it goes kaput!

Anyhelp appreciated!

P.S.

Any one know how long dells warrenty are? This hard drive is a maximum of 2.5 years old (maybe only 2) so I should be able to get a new one from dell?

Unless you plumped for extended warrenty, im afraid its a year. As for the documents, as admin you should be able to take control from the "old" user.

The length of the warranty has no bearing on your legal rights. Your statutory rights give you a degree of protection until the kit is six years old; if its only two years old and it has failed, which it has, then it plainly wasnt durable. It would be a mistake to expect Dell to immediately offer to repair the fixed disk.... With warranties and customer service policies you can expect them to offer, but with your statutory rights you have to expect to force them. I assure you that Dell are liable in this instance, but for your piece of mind Id advise you to contact your local CAB. Btw; I personally wouldnt accept a depeciated credit in this instance.

Simon