Hi, I have a Dell Laptop w/ a 40gb HD in it. When I went to boot it yesterday, it said "Disk Read Error - Press Ctrl+alt+del" and goes "click, click, click" right after the "DELL" splash screen. I am wondering if it is the MBR and if it is worth trying to fixmbr or if I should just bid on a new drive. My question is, do I have to use the drive manufacturer disk utility to try to fix it, or can I do it through MS commands. I guess the best way is w/ the drives util but I guess I have to d/l it and burn it as a bootable cd which I think is a little hard to do?? Let me know if anyone can help out w/ this. thanks!!

Boot the laptop and watch the screens at startup. The harddrive should be identified by model in those screens. If the drives shows there then you probably have a problem with your Windows installation. However if the drive is actually clicking that is not a good sign. Do you have a Dell restore disk set?

Depends on what is wrong. If the drive is defective it can't be fixed for the most part. If only some data is missing it might be fixed. I's say get the data off using a live cd if you need anything on it before you go farther. There are some good hard drive diags out there. The one for that brand might support extra features. See ultimate boot cd for general tests. Dell might even offer some. Be sure you know how to recover the OEM data if it is on the drive also. You might need to order media. If the drive tests show the hd is bad then your only choice is to replace and reload. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.