"No boot sector on internal hard drive"

[DDrgn]

Yeah, Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop won't boot anymore and I get that line:

"No boot sector on internal hard drive"

I don't think it "died," just won't boot anymore. On a different computer at the moment. I don't have a "Windows XP Recovery CD" or anything like that, so I guess I have to create a boot disk? Not sure how to do that.

Please help, and any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Neothisis]

Since it's a laptop you'd have a hard time dusting off the insides...but that's probably the first thing you should do if you can.
I'll leave the technicalities to Nos, since I don't remember how bootchk works.

[F50 NOS]

Your MBR is corrupt. Can you borrow an XP install disc from a friend? You don't need the serial key, just the repair console.

The second option is to replace the files manually, but it requires a LOT more time. It requires a second computer with XP, a floppy disk, and a floppy drive. Best to have a floppy disk, but if you don't, then you will need a blank CD and a CD burner.

[Rook]

If you can't find another XP disc I'd go looking for a torrent with one... you're using it for legit purposes anyway.

[DDrgn]

MBR? What does that stand for? I don't know anyone that has an XP install disc. Dell shipped my laptop without any diagnostic CDs or anything like that.

Ah, I have:

• An XP PC.
• Floppies and an external floppy drive that I can plug into my laptop via USB
• A Windows 98 CD. - Can I use this?

I don't really want to torrent for one; Guess I don't trust those. Any other way to get a "repair console"?

If I have to use the floppy disk, what exactly do I have to do with it?

[F50 NOS]

Master boot record.

I would suggest calling up DELL for an XP CD. You can't use any other CD since you need the Repair console found on the XP CD.

For a floppy, even I'm not 100% sure of the details, but you have to format it, drag some files onto there to make it bootable, boot into XP using the floppy, and start replacing files.

[DDrgn]

I have good news, and bad news.

The good news is that I found an XP CD, for the other XP computer I have(also Dell).

The bad news is my hard drive lost everything. Yeah, it had all the GB free, so, nothing left. EVERYTHING. ;_;

Thanks for the help though everyone.

[ClericLordLeo]

Hey it's nice to know DDrgn is using the same laptop as me.