Troubleshooting a Dell Hard Disk Drive

Troubleshoot your Dell hard drive.

Hard drives are a critical component for data storage, so troubleshooting problems is a main concern for those noticing issues with their Dell machine. Dell desktops and laptops come with factory-set configurations. If these configurations are changed, or the hard drive starts to fail, computer issues occur. Some can be corrected by changing settings on the machine, while others require a replacement of the hard drive in your Dell system.

Instructions

1. Check the cables on the hard drive. A cable attaches from the motherboard to the hard drive. Another power cable connects from the power supply to the hard drive. If either of these cables detach, the hard drive does not function. Ensure these cables are faceted tightly to the hard drive and motherboard, and power on the computer to test the hard drive. Consult your Dell manual for information on accessing your hard drive cables (see Resources).

2. Load your BIOS settings or view the BIOS printout when the computer boots up. The BIOS prints out a list of hard drives detected on the machine, and your Dell hard drive should be in the list of hard drives. To load the BIOS settings, restart the computer and press "F2" when you see the BIOS screen. If no hard drive is listed, the cable may be detached or the hard drive may no longer function.

3. Run an antivirus application if the hard drive boots but has intermittent problems. Some viruses copy code to your boot sector on the hard drive, which causes intermittent boot problems. Run your antivirus program on the machine to detect any of these viruses. In some cases, the antivirus program can fix the problem. In severe cases, you may need to reformat the hard drive.

4. View your hard drive settings in Windows. Click the Windows "Start" button and enter "devmgmt.msc" into the text box. This opens Device Manager, where you can view a list of hardware and drivers. Right-click your hard drive and select "Reinstall." This reinstalls your hard drive drivers if the drivers have corrupted. This fixes some intermittent driver errors.

5. Format a secondary hard drive if it is not recognized. If the problem is with a secondary hard drive, the Windows operating system can identify issues. Click the Windows "Start" button and enter "compmgmt.msc" into the text box. This opens a "Computer Management" console. Click "Disk Management" on the left. Windows evaluates disks and the space allocated for your partitions. If the disk is not formatted (indicated by a black bar), right-click the unallocated space and select "Format" to format the partition to a readable partition for your computer.

References

• LockerGnome: Seven Steps To Troubleshooting Hard Drive Problems

Resources

• Dell: Technical Support