Inspiron 1720 hardware

i think something is wrong with my windows or my hard drive failed, can't figure out which one.

In one scenario when i start windows normally it says i can't load a registry file and refuses to continue

When i try to load the repair the option it says "Unmountable_Boot_Volume"
If i need a new hard drive what are some cheap compatible ones for the 1720.

 

I'd try and just reinstall Windows, the repair option is utterly useless to be honest. Just reinstall over top of the original windows partition DO NOT REFORMAT IT, again just reinstall. This way if you are the majority of poor judgment people that stores all their data on the Windows partition - you shouldn't loose anything.

To answer your harddrive woes, any 2.5" Sata Notebook drive will work. Depending on your location, you can pick up a 250GB drive for like $120, maybe cheaper now.

I recommend the Seagate 250GB 5200RPM drive, it's platter density is so perfect it runs just as good if not much better then a 7200RPM drive without the massive kick in power consumption and heat generation.

Enough said. =)

 

i would've stored on an external but i can't afford it i'll try your way thanks.

 

I totally understand, I don't have the money for an external either, and when I do have the throw around money it's rather blown on other fancy gadgets or on my expensive professional RC helicopter hobby. =P

I just have three partitions on my single hard-drive. One for Vista, one for XP and another for for my data strictly. So in these "no boot" situations, I can blow the OS partition all to hell and have no regrets. =D

 

so how does one know if the hard drive has failed?

 

If you can get a hold of diagnostics software from your hard drive manufacturer, it'll almost certainly have some sort of error checking module. If you can hook up the drive to another machine, you can also try scanning it with HDTune and checking for bad sectors. Do you know the make of your HDD?