Read failure on internal hard drive, no bootable device

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hi folks, i get the above error when trying to start my dell inpiron b130 with win xp.

i do not have an os cd or driver cd since they perhaps dont ship it seperately with it these days.

while troubleshooting with dell support they said the hardware is fine (through bios) but i would need to reinstall the os and thus loose all data. i do not have a data backup taken externally.

any way i can recover the data myself or do i HAVE to go and take the payed data recovery option from outside vendors? can one create some bootable cd and then access hard drive data w/o reinstall!

appreciate any pointers urgently! thanks
 
That means your boot sector is damaged. If you can create a windows startup disk on floppy or cd on another pc that has the same version of windows, you may be able to sort it!!!
 
after that?

thanks rik for the reply.
i had some idea that one can create a bootable disk and use it to start-up. but what do i do after that to get my data back - my question may sound quite elementary :-( but i have no idea as to the steps to be done after that. appreciate any pointers, steps...

thanks.
 
It will all depend on what disk you create to boot from and what it has on it really. It will also depend on exactly whats wrong with your hard drive too.

It would be easy to fix if you had a windows cd by going into recovery console and typing fixmbr, but as you don't have a windows cd that's not possible.

If you have a friend that has a cd for the exact same version of window that you have that wouldn't mind you borrowing it to fix your pc then that would be the easiest fix. You would not be doing anything illegal unless you reinstalled from it.

If you can get hold of a cd then let me know and i can instruct you on how to use it to repair your system (provided the hard drive is ok).
 
911 cd has a generic mbr I have not tested it with any bad OS drives
make a boot disc from other machine
and try that
or if you have legal version dell will send you disc for about 20/40 usd
maybe MS will not sure cause it's OEM
find a free utility to copy data to another drive
do reinstall replace your files

PM for more info on dell OEM disc replacement
 
Forget about the MBR for a moment.

You should run a manufacturer drive diagnostic. https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic7602.html

Assuming this is an MBR problem (Although this message usually comes in the form of "BOOT FAILURE", "NO OS FOUND" or "INVALID SYSTEM DISK"), it would be useful to find out WHY this happened. A failed hard drive is a good possibility and it may be covered under warranty.

Metaphorically, you may be wasting your time curing an illness on a patient who's already dead. :)
 
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