Dell not booting to Vista

kymberli

New Member
Have a Dell Inspiron 5305. Today it wouldn't boot to Vista. It goes to the Dell screen but that's it. I can't get to the Boot menu because it than takes me to a screen that says ' Diskette drive 0 seek failure F1 to continue (than takes me to a black screen with a small line flashing in upper left corner) or F2 to go to set up menu. I've tried to put the Vista reinstallation CD in but it won't run. A few months back I had a similar problem due to a virus but was able to use the CD to fix it. Any ideas/advice?
 

My Computer

can you get into the bios? if so is your HDD listed or no? and you can from there change your boot order so you can boot from the CD/DVD first.

also check all your cables to see if one did not just come loose.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    CUSTOM BUILT BY ME
    CPU
    AMD PHENOM II X3 710 2.6GHZ Overclocked to 3.25GHZ Stable
    Motherboard
    Ecs Gf8200a Phenom-2 X4 Quad Core Mboard
    Memory
    8BG PC5300 4 x 2GB OCZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    PCI-E ATI HD 4670 1GB Overclocked 4GB Total
    Sound Card
    Onboard 7.1 HD AUDIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    55" Vizio LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 HD
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate, 1TB Hitachi, 250GB Maxtor, 250GB Seagate
    PSU
    Kingwin ABT-610MM Maximum Power 610 Watt ATX 12V
    Case
    GENERIC
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS7500-AlCu LED Universal CPU Cooler, 4 CASE FANS
    Keyboard
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS KEYBOARD
    Mouse
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS MOUSE
    Internet Speed
    CABLE 15MBPS
Sounds like it is trying to boot from a floppy drive - which presumably you don't have.

See if you can disable floppy drive in the Bios.

Also check boot drive order and make sure hd and cdrom drive are listed.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
So, I changed it to boot from the disk. Had to go through the boot menu to get it to do it. Anyhoo. Got to a screen with a loading bar that said loading windows files. Finished that now it's on a green-ish loading bar that usually pops up real quick when it boots to windows. Has the Microsoft Corp. logo underneath. How long should this be up there, it's been going on for half an hour.
 

My Computer

Okay, so evidently it's a night for real-time updates. Forget that. It's different now. I'll wait until I have a big problem to come back and bother yall. Thanks so much for the help.
 

My Computer

Hi kymberli,

I have no idea what your last post means.:confused:


Are you now able to boot from the Dell dvd, or did you try to boot straight into Windows?

It shouldn't have been sitting there that long.

You could try this:


  1. Power on the system.
  2. Press <F8> when the message For troubleshooting and advanced startup options for Windows, press F8 appears.
  3. Choose Last Known-Good Configuration.
 
Last edited:

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
Sorry, edited the last message.

I got to the vista screen where it was installing windows. Finished with that. It said it needed to restart in order to finish. Went right back to the diskette 0 seek failure screen. I did it three times. Should I try to reboot from the harddrive?

I tried the F8 thing and it brings me to the diskette screen.

:sarc:
 

My Computer

Try going back into Bios and reset it to default.

There is probably an instruction to press f10 (or similar) to reset to default.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
to get into the bios it is either F1 F10 F11 or DEL keys one of those should bring you into it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    CUSTOM BUILT BY ME
    CPU
    AMD PHENOM II X3 710 2.6GHZ Overclocked to 3.25GHZ Stable
    Motherboard
    Ecs Gf8200a Phenom-2 X4 Quad Core Mboard
    Memory
    8BG PC5300 4 x 2GB OCZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    PCI-E ATI HD 4670 1GB Overclocked 4GB Total
    Sound Card
    Onboard 7.1 HD AUDIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    55" Vizio LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 HD
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate, 1TB Hitachi, 250GB Maxtor, 250GB Seagate
    PSU
    Kingwin ABT-610MM Maximum Power 610 Watt ATX 12V
    Case
    GENERIC
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS7500-AlCu LED Universal CPU Cooler, 4 CASE FANS
    Keyboard
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS KEYBOARD
    Mouse
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS MOUSE
    Internet Speed
    CABLE 15MBPS
I reset the bios before I even rebooted, should I do it again?

I've rebooted from the cd and reinstalled windows. Rebooted from the harddrive as well. Now my problem is this; When I turn the computer on, it still goes to the diskette 0 seek failure. I press F1 to continue and it boots to vista. There isn't anything there aside from the recycle bin on the desktop. I understand all files, photos, etc. would be lost but do I now have to reinstall everything, printer, modem, etc.? Also, it's telling me disk space is running out on RECOVERY (D:) and I need to make room by deleting programs I don't need. It also has a pop up box, the system maintenance/Welcome center everytime I start the computer. Everything is very large, too. Like I'm running it in safe mode. I'm at a loss.
 

My Computer

sounds like your video card driver is not installed. but you should just do a full wipe and reinstall, that is what i would do so hopefully no problems later on
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    CUSTOM BUILT BY ME
    CPU
    AMD PHENOM II X3 710 2.6GHZ Overclocked to 3.25GHZ Stable
    Motherboard
    Ecs Gf8200a Phenom-2 X4 Quad Core Mboard
    Memory
    8BG PC5300 4 x 2GB OCZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    PCI-E ATI HD 4670 1GB Overclocked 4GB Total
    Sound Card
    Onboard 7.1 HD AUDIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    55" Vizio LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 HD
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate, 1TB Hitachi, 250GB Maxtor, 250GB Seagate
    PSU
    Kingwin ABT-610MM Maximum Power 610 Watt ATX 12V
    Case
    GENERIC
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS7500-AlCu LED Universal CPU Cooler, 4 CASE FANS
    Keyboard
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS KEYBOARD
    Mouse
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS MOUSE
    Internet Speed
    CABLE 15MBPS
Hi kymberli, every time you reset BIOS, it will take you to diskette drive seek failure message. So disable diskette drive in BIOS and then DO NOT reset BIOS.
Double-click on D Recovery drive and you will find many folders out there.
Delete the last folder.
If Welcome Center comes again, at its very bottom, there is a check box, Run Welcome Center when windows starts, (something like that), uncheck that box.
Go to this page and download and chipset driver.

Hope that helps,
Dinesh.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq
    CPU
    intel core 2 duo T 5550 @ 1.83 MHz
    Motherboard
    intel 965 chipset family
    Memory
    2 GB DDR 2 SD RAM @ 667 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    On board upto 358 MB RAM
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15"
    Hard Drives
    160 GB WDC
Here is dells web page for driver downloads

Drivers & Downloads

already set for your 530S desktop.

hope that helps all the drivers you should need for vista. just make sure your download the correct drivers
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    CUSTOM BUILT BY ME
    CPU
    AMD PHENOM II X3 710 2.6GHZ Overclocked to 3.25GHZ Stable
    Motherboard
    Ecs Gf8200a Phenom-2 X4 Quad Core Mboard
    Memory
    8BG PC5300 4 x 2GB OCZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    PCI-E ATI HD 4670 1GB Overclocked 4GB Total
    Sound Card
    Onboard 7.1 HD AUDIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    55" Vizio LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 HD
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate, 1TB Hitachi, 250GB Maxtor, 250GB Seagate
    PSU
    Kingwin ABT-610MM Maximum Power 610 Watt ATX 12V
    Case
    GENERIC
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS7500-AlCu LED Universal CPU Cooler, 4 CASE FANS
    Keyboard
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS KEYBOARD
    Mouse
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS MOUSE
    Internet Speed
    CABLE 15MBPS
I can't connect to the internet. Have to figure out how to get back onto my home network.
My main question is; Right now we're in Recovery (D:)..is there anyway to get back to C:? That's obviously where we need to be. I can't get onto the internet to download any drivers and we can't install anything because there isn't any space left on D:.
 

My Computer

you cant get into the c partition at all? well that could be a bad partition or HDD going bad.

if it is a bad partition you would have to format it to get it back. do you have a extra HDD you could put into the pc and try to install to?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    CUSTOM BUILT BY ME
    CPU
    AMD PHENOM II X3 710 2.6GHZ Overclocked to 3.25GHZ Stable
    Motherboard
    Ecs Gf8200a Phenom-2 X4 Quad Core Mboard
    Memory
    8BG PC5300 4 x 2GB OCZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    PCI-E ATI HD 4670 1GB Overclocked 4GB Total
    Sound Card
    Onboard 7.1 HD AUDIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    55" Vizio LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 HD
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate, 1TB Hitachi, 250GB Maxtor, 250GB Seagate
    PSU
    Kingwin ABT-610MM Maximum Power 610 Watt ATX 12V
    Case
    GENERIC
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS7500-AlCu LED Universal CPU Cooler, 4 CASE FANS
    Keyboard
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS KEYBOARD
    Mouse
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS MOUSE
    Internet Speed
    CABLE 15MBPS
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