[hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partition

[hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partition
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lotsip @ 29th Oct 01:09PM:
[hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partition

My friend's dell dimension 2400 desktop had a nasty virus. I decided to reinstall windows xp from xp installation cd, since he didn't have the dell restore cd's , or a restore partition on the drive. I deleted the only two partitions on the drive, a 38gb partition and a small dell "diagnostic partition".

My problem is the MB/Bios won't boot to the cd drive now. It seems Dell has a MB bios which wants that small diagnostic partition in order to boot.

I need to restore that partition to its original position on the drive. I have tried a few programs, without much luck. Anyone know which program does that best ?

I know this topic has been posted before, read all the messages, but, no solution from them.
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srr2 @ 29th Oct 01:24PM:
Re: [hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partitio

Odd. I've installed Dell OEM XP a dozen times to a new disk (i.e. lacking that diagnostic partition) in a 2400 without running into anything like this.

Are you absolutely positively sure that the boot order is set correctly and that the optical drive is working correctly? I've seen quite a few optical drive failures in that vintage Dell. They were pretty much junk. I suggest you try another optical drive after making sure that it's recognized in the BIOS resource enumeration and that the boot order is set right.
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psafux @ 29th Oct 03:26PM:
Re: [hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partitio

Hitting F12 during the 'DELL' startup screen, right when the computer is turned on should give you the boot option screen. You can choose optical drive from that menu.

If it still doesn't work, either the optical drive or CD is bad.

The optical drives in many older dells are complete junk, notorious for failing long before they should.
--
Yes. the cat in my avatar is indeed mine.
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HarryH3 @ 29th Oct 04:59PM:
Re: [hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partitio

The 2400 that I'm using to type this doesn't have that partition. It went away long ago with a disk upgrade. Booting from an XP install disk has never been a problem. So yeah, I'm with the other folks. The system isn't seeing the CD or can't determine that it's bootable. :(
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lotsip @ 29th Oct 10:04PM:
Re: [hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partitio

hmmmm, yes, got the boot drive order correct, cd rom drive has been working fine, but, will try another one, just in case. thanks
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psafux @ 30th Oct 09:07AM:
Re: [hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partitio

said by lotsip :

hmmmm, yes, got the boot drive order correct, cd rom drive has been working fine, but, will try another one, just in case. thanks

not to sound snarky, but things always work fine until they stop working fine :P That is probably the number one comment I hear all the time and absolutely hate.

I have worked on MANY dells which have had the optical drive fail literally while I am working with it. The client almost always says 'It worked fine before I brought it in'. Always a fun conversation with people that aren't real tech savvy. Yes - things do just suddenly stop working :)

Let us know what you find or we can be of additional assistance!
--
Yes. the cat in my avatar is indeed mine.
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captokita @ 30th Oct 10:21AM:
Re: [hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partitio

said by psafux :

I have worked on MANY dells which have had the optical drive fail literally while I am working with it. The client almost always says 'It worked fine before I brought it in'. Always a fun conversation with people that aren't real tech savvy. Yes - things do just suddenly stop working :)

+1 - been there, done that.

To the OP - try the CD in another system and see if it boots, if not, the CD could be bad. (I've had Dell OS CDs just stop working, which is now why I run a copy of the originals and store them away.
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lotsip @ 30th Oct 10:35AM:
Re: [hard drive] Dell dimension 2400, deleted diagostic partitio

hhahaha, speak of the devil,you guys were right, the cd drive was bad. thanks !!
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