Solved Hard Drive Failure?

Hello! I am new here and am using another computer from our homestead to post because....
My 3 year old Dell Inspiron with Windows Vista seams to be having a hard drive issue. I was told to reinstall Windows Vista. It is currently almost 5 hours later, and I have no idea if it's even continuing the process because the screen has been black (with a functioning cursor when I move it) for more than 3 hours. It is also hooked up to the internet for current Windows updates.

I have PC tuneup software that was installed. I also have tried to do the hard drive test through Dell's support, but it fails.

Is this time frame normal? I wish I could tell you the technical specifics about the computer. I do know it is 3 GB memory, 2.0 GHz dual core Pentium processor. If my computer does resurrect itself, I will definitely add more specs.

Thanks for reading!

Welcome
Lets begin the testing.
Sounds like it is hard drive or other hardware.
Lets see what happens if you try in safe mode.
Boot the computer as it begins to boot, or should be, rapidly hit f8 many times. What happens?

Thank you for your reply. ~Since I am 5 hours in with reinstall Vista with the disk, what would happen if I just turn the computer off?

Its always bad to shut down incorrectly as it may damage the hard drive. That being said, if you hear and see nothing on the screen, I do not think that anything is actually happening, but thats just a guess.
Bottom line, if you have problems or not, nothing can be done the way things are now. It does not even take 3 hours to install Vista, never mind 3 hours with nothing happening.
I cannot tell you what to do, I can only tell you the facts the way that I see them.

Since I have a good warranty, I took the plunge and turned off, then on, hit F8 and Windows Vista was highlighted to choose as the operating system. I hit Enter and now Safe Mode is booting. Safe Mode seams to take longer than the normal operation, because I have used this to try to resotre the computer twice in the past 2 weeks.

Good, report back on what happens in safe mode. Try to be specific.

Well, unfortunately Windows is still loading system drivers. I think it's stuck again. It's been on the same screen.
I think it's safe to say my computer needs repair for some sort of hardware failure.
The warranty company said they would immediately approve my claim if reinstalling Windows did not solve anything. If something was to happen, I'm just glad it did within the warranty, because it expires in 8 weeks. I'm not usally that fortunate when it comes to warranties.
Thank you for your time! I will be marking this as solved, though it is far from over!

Glad that you are on the road to solving your problem. Hope that you get it sorted soon.