It odd that you say this. Upon doing some trial and error attempt for my current PC situation, (blue screen o death) I have concluded that my hard drive is fubar. If I unplug it I can actually get my PC to read the OS disk for a reinstall. Of course theirs no where to put it.
So I pull the hard drive from my XPS410. I look at the name...Seagate. Its the Barracuda 7200.10. I thought to myself, OK lasted three yrs, not bad for an electronic component. So I go to look at the specs on NewEgg to see how much for the same or better. Wow. I was expecting cost to be a lot more. So I started looking at a 1 terabyte upgrade (Currently have 250gb). Seems to me that 1t+ have been quite unreliable from the customer reviews. How about going back to the same. So I start reading the reviews. I was shocked at the amount of people that reported failures with in the first year.
So I think I am going to try my luck with a Western Digital - Caviar GP 500GB Internal Hard. 70 bucks at best buy and I've doubled my space. If anyone has any suggestions let me know before I go get one tomorrow.
So after doing some reading, smashing my head into my desk, and obscene amounts of cussing I have learned that my problem actually was cause by Microsoft. It was a problem with an update that they had sent me. This update caused a failure during boot up. So I tried a bunch of methods I found out this is due to Microsoft. So I check MS website. They have a hotfix for it, but how to a hotfix into a PC that won't boot. I used the friendly chat feature, and the Tech Support guy in India told me (about 5-8times) that he was very sorry, and understands my issue. Step 1) Insert Windows 7 Install disc. Huh? Mr.NameICantPronounce, I don't have a Window 7 OS install disc. "I'm sorry Mr. Young, you need the Windows 7 install disc". So what your telling me is I need a new operating system to fix an issue with Vista? I find that to amusing. Ok, want to go that route. Ok, so send me Windows 7 Home Premium, and we'll get this fixed. "I'm sorry Sir, I cannot do this." But you work for Microsoft, you don't have a spare disc laying around? This goes on for 20+ min, same response. Install Windows 7 to cure the problem with Vista. So I ask to speak with a floor manager, same response. I politely ask the manager to check around with his superiors to see if there is anyway they can get copy of Windows 7. He said he would, and said he'll came back tomorrow. We shall see.
In the mean time I ran out to BestBuy, purchased a 500gb Seagate hard drive to see if I could get back up and going. It worked. Now to format my 250gb SeaGate and use it for my extra storage space I suppose. So maybe Seagate isn't all bad.
