1. I wouldn't volunteer to buy a copy of XP Home...you already have a license for that (the key on the freebie)
You just need to borrow an OEM XP Home copy. I got one from a local 'puter shop for the asking.
It's just a copy of an official M$ disk but you need to input your key.

2. If you buy a single license it's only good for one instance (machine).
I've monkeyed with it and it eventually bites you.

3. If I wanted to upgrade the HDD in the Toshiba I would clone the current profile and reload it onto the new HDD. It helps to have a portable HDD or big thumb drive to do this.
Some portable HDD's come with cloning software and you can later use the portable for backups.
For cloning, I've used Acronis (paid) but there are some freebies....
Go to Major Geeks for free stuff....safe site to download from just click on the correct button and not an advertisement.

i have a 500 gig external, and a 1 Terra external, but thats at my brothers, 500 is here... plus a few 2-20 gig flash drives...

the other place screwed my hard drive up in the Toshiba, i lost everything, including the OS... so, instead of ever running into any problem due to that, im just going to scrap that HD and buy a new one, the computer shop has 160 gig ones for 60 bucks, and 300 gig ones for like 129 or whatever it was... i figured i would just start over completely...

the one thing that pisses me off about the Dell, is it needs to be hard wired into the router, or use a USB antenna to connect to the internet... and it sticks out a bit, and is irritating.. the Toshiba isnt like that, it has an internal lockable antenna... but the screen is smaller than the Dell, and the graphics card isnt as good as the Dell either.. which is why i want to try to fix it, if its not too expensive to do so... i probably should be focusing on trying to fix the Toshiba flat out... and by fixing, i mean fully upgrading the CPU and Ram and HDD... it would be nice to have this Dell as a beater computer tho, that i can bring in the car to check flow levels and such on the go, and even bug you guys while im at the river

or another option, that i just thought of... i could look on Ebay for a "parts" computer of the same make as the Dell with a cracked LCD or something, and pull the board and the drive out of it, and put it in this one, or the screen out of this one, and put it in the other... and if Parker is right about only being 50 bucks at most, that would be the easiest simplest and cheapest way to fix it...

Never sniff a gift fish.

That Dell sounds like the vintage that may have a card bus Type II slot and if so there are wireless adapters for that interface. About $20.
Not a big deal to run one and you don't use up a USB port.
(1/8"+ x 2"+ slot)


Stop it.
Don't buy someone else's junk.
And don't buy a new HDD until you test the one in the Dell.
If you have to buy, get it online from Newegg.

First run the hard drive diagnostic with the UBCD linked above after you determine whether you have a Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, Maxtor or Fujitsu. Look under the cover if you don't have the Dell build sheet to determine HDD mfr.
Just burn the bootdisk on your healthy computer, boot up the sick machine with it and choose the correct diagnostic.

the hard drive is a Toshiba HDD 2181... i pulled it out, and turned the computer on... guess what... no grinding fan like noise, and it went to the "no bootable devices" screen rather quickly... put it back in, and its grinding away, taking forever to boot up again... you can also feel vibration directy over the top of where the drive sits in the computer... and its back to its slow ways of getting to the blue error screen...

i will try your link, but with the drive making this much noise, its almost a dead giveaway...

"you can also feel vibration"

Maybe your wife would like it?

If it's making noise like that, it's toast.

Looks like those older HDD's are more expensive than I thought. C&P the link into your browser.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007605%20600003442&IsNodeId=1&name=IDE%20Ultra%20ATA100%20%2f%20ATA-6
Cheaper but smaller here..
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-ST980815A-80GB-5400rpm-Drive/dp/tech-data/B000H4WKWK
Double-check the interface before you buy, but I believe these are correct.
If you try to go bigger than 137GB you may have trouble.

There was a 137GB ceiling with the old BIOS instruction sets.
The new instruction set would allow "large drive recognition".
If you haven't flashed BIOS before, probably not a good time to practice with the machine inoperable, etc.
Look for a 120GB or smaller if you have this older BIOS.

You could look up the Dell model number and see what HDD options they offered.

Sound like it is dead. I'd recommend putting an eye hook in it and using it as a flasher for the next time you go fishing....that is if you ever fish.

DD it sounds like a quieter blender basically... but with it working the way it was yesterday, atleast i have eliminated the Motherboard issue... so now i just need a HDD..


stone, i fish, ive been fishing 2 times in the last 4 days, but since its lakes and for trout, it doesnt count as fishing...and id rather use my Seps flashers than a Toshiba

i dont need anything larger than 120 DD... 80 would even work, as i dont plan to use this for anything but surfing and minor stuff.. no music, no programs, nothing... my big computers are 500 gig, and 640 gig, i use them for the music and other crap...

like i said, i have the 500 gig external HD, if i need to save anything on this laptop, i can use it instead of the internal HDD... that way i can take the information to whatever computer i wish, and i wont lag the laptop down with a bunch of crap on it....

thanks for your help, i appreciate it...

and yeah, HD prices have been going up, and down, and up... theres a good computer shop down the street i can get an 80 from for like 40 or 60 bucks, i cant remember, the 120 if i remember right is 60 bucks... the one in the computer is only a 30, so either would be an improvement over it... plus, this laptop has simple hook up to external monitors such as my LCD TV... which will be cool streaming UFC fights and such...

Be sure to get the correct interface...I think that Dell is ATA-100 (PATA)

i can also upgrade the Ram to 2 gigs for 50 bucks as well... might not be a bad idea..

http://www.amazon.com/memory-upgrade-Inspiron-Notebook-Laptop/dp/B001SVLP9U/ref=pd_cp_pc_3

i will see how quick it is tho with the new HDD in it and the existing Ram and Motherboard before i go doing that...

Dell forums say that it is an IDE aka PATA aka ATA drive just like you said... and 120 gigs are fine... they also say that i can have the tech guy Clone the OS and all programs on this drive and have the image installed on the new drive making it plug and play... that is, IF its salvageable, which it might not be from the noise its making... the computer we had built before my dad died, runs SATA and RAID componets, but thats kinda redundant..

pretty simple fix and not too pricey for a decent laptop...

If I remember correctly, XP likes at least 1 GB....the early XP machines shipped with 256 MB and would have to page like crazy.
If it's a two-channel board be sure that's turned on.

But, yeah, get the friggin thing running and stable before monkeying with memory upgrades.

the cards that are in it are twin 128s... and its a 1.5ghz system... but it was clipping along pretty decent last night before i shut it off... watched some videos on youtube, went to Facebook, and it was quick and nice quality... but yeah, i should get it working correctly before upgrading stuff...


Abu kiss my a$$...

oh sh!t... guess what DD.. i was looking through the box, grabbing all the driver and other disks... guess what i found?



the windows XP OS disk!!!

just got that much easier, and cheaper...

since this isnt my info on here, and she didnt care, should i format the hard drive and see if its maybe corrupted or something and re install the OS and Drivers? or would that be a waste of time?

I think that was on your list of things to do a few posts back.
Glad you found it.

If that HDD is making all the noise you say it is, I would considered it toast.
I wouldn't do sh!t with it unless it came up clean after a diagnostic.
Burn the free bootdisk I linked you and run the Toshiba diagnostic before wasting time with it.

Edit:
Use the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test.

im out of CDs right now, i used my last ones a month or so ago... i turned the computer back on to see if it would stop grinding and making the noise like it did last night... no dice... matter of fact, i picked it up to listen closer to it, and the thing started squealing for a second then went back to the WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH buzzing grinding noise, and takes a minute to get to the error screen... im not gonna waste any more time with this thing... ill just get a new HD and start over... i also dont care to see someone elses information on a computer, so, i guess its win win....ill just throw this hard drive in my friends incinerator or something and be done with it....

cant beat a new(to me) lap top for under 100 bucks...

When you get to the point, I have service packs for xp on disc....could mail them to you. I want them back tho.

that would be awesome if i need them... the OS disk includes SP1, and i think or thought i could get the rest from Microsoft on the net... not sure tho, so if i need em, ill even pay for postage both ways... ill have it fixed within a couple days... thank you...